


The Impossible Dream

by TheSecondSon



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Girl Penis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:14:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24713677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondSon/pseuds/TheSecondSon
Summary: Can the USWNT win the Olympics as well as the World Cup? The obstacles they face may be more internal than external as they build up for another major tournament.
Relationships: Abby Dahlkemper/Sam Mewis, Alyssa Naeher/Becky Sauerbrunn, Crystal Dunn/Lynn Williams, Hope Solo/Kelley O'Hara/Alex Morgan/Heather O'Reilly, Lindsey Horan/Emily Sonnett, Rose Lavelle/Andi Sullivan, Tierna Davidson/Rose Lavelle, Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Comments: 30
Kudos: 96





	1. Teammates with Benefits

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Welcome to a 2020 Olympics year in the Omegaverse without the coronavirus! Enjoy your stay.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with the banter

Rose Lavelle could smell Andi Sullivan’s passion as she canted her hips in time with Andi’s thrusts, “Getting close,” she managed to pant out.

“Uh huh” Sullivan breathed back, almost letting out a snarl. She always fancied herself as one of calmer alphas on the US women’s national team, but in between the sheets, she was as animalistic as any of the others. She knew she was close to coming, and picked up the pace of her thrusting as she rained a legion of kisses down Rose’s breasts and stomach area. She felt her body tense up as she buried herself to the hilt and came deep within the fellow midfielder. With a satisfied sigh, she rolled over onto the queen size mattress they had bought for their apartment together.

“That was excellent, Alpha”

Rose squeaked and covered her arms face as she felt Andi’s pillow come down over her forearms. She knew Andi was reserving the “Alpha” pet name for her mate. The two found each other extremely convenient to have around for help through their own heats and ruts, but they both knew that they would never mate the other, despite not knowing who their mates were yet. They were great friends, nothing more.

As such, the pet names Alpha and Omega made for excellent banter, especially during casual sex.

Rose kept her hands in front of her as she the scramble to avoid the pillow had her falling out of her roommates bed, grinning internally as she felt the alpa pride and satisfaction rolling off of her friend’s body.

Despite Andi’s outward annoyance; the sex was great, even if they knew they weren’t mates. When they eventually found the one, they knew the mated sex would be even better, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying each other while they were unmated. The Alpha need to protect and care and the Omega need to please the pack’s Alpha were both present in each of them.

The fellow midfielder’s contended pheromones soothed Rose’s own, adding an extra sense of wholeness to the afterglow.

Rose couldn’t really acknowledge it, as now that she was out of arms’ reach, the pillow was getting thrown at her.

“Get out of here” Andi said with a chuckle.  
“Hey you can’t even thank a girl?” Rose grinned as she ran away from the roughhousing.

Andi covered her chest with a blanket as she sat up in bed to look at her friend and teammate.

“Thank you, Rose,” she said.

“You are very welcome Andi,” Rose said with a grin. “I’m gonna grab a granola bar from the kitchen. Want anything?” The need to feed and care for a pack alpha was always present for the young omega. Pack loyalty was always important, but professional sports teams made for an excellent structure with which to strengthen instinctual bonds; Rose’s captain in club play was also a teammate for the National Team. They weren’t mates, but Andi was probably the most important Alpha in her life until she found one.

“I’m good, I’m gonna hop in the shower, do you want to join me?”

“A second round the night before a camp?” Rose was mildly incredulous as she came back into the room.

“Why not? Mal is out with Bledsoe anyway, not like we’re giving our roommate something to complain about.” Sullivan argued.

“Dawn would kill us.”

“She might if she found out, be she isn’t here anymore. No one’ll know, we leave for camp tomorrow, and all we have is a team dinner. We’ll have a full night of sleep before we even have our first training, and the turney doesn’t even start for a week after that.”

“But it’s five games in 14 days!” Rose’s Omega instincts had her thinking of the worst case scenario. Rationally, she knew she would be ok, but she didn’t want any alphas on the fitness staff growling at her if they found out she wasn’t prepared for any camp, and this was Olympic qualifying.

“During which you’ll play in like 4, and go a full 90 in 2, tops. Rose, trust me, it’s fine” She could smell the nerves that Rose was giving off, and Andi countered by regulating her own breathing to give off as many calming pheromones as possible. She came up behind her friend as she ate and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. 

“Come on,” she said as she headed for the bathroom, “the more we bang now the less likely you’ll go into heat during the tournament!”  
“Literally a myth.”

“True. But sex is good cardio!” Andi walked off toward the shower.

“Uggh, fine” Rose smiled to herself as she stalked after her friend.

Rose had to finish her granola bar before hopping in the shower, so Sullivan’s body was already coated in water as she noticed Lavelle drawing back the curtain.  
“You sure you’re up for another round? Consent is sexy.” Sully grinned.

Lavelle gave her a half hearted slap. “Nice catch phrase” They both chuckled.

“I appreciate the check in, but I was up for it the moment you asked.” Rose’s voice dropped into a husk as she ran a hand up her teammate’s thigh. “I’m up for it even more now that I see what we’re working with.” Lavelle was always proud of her pseudo-Alpha, no matter what she did on the soccer field, but she let the pride roll off of her as she took in her friend’s slick body. She messaged her way up the six’s leg before arriving at the sinewy, corded muscle of her friend’s ass. Giving the taller midfielder’s rear a playful squeeze, she switched to using her mouth and kissed her way up Sullivan’s abdomen.

Appreciating the attention from the young superstar, Sullivan groaned as she felt her dick hardening against Lavelle’s stomach. “Don’t stop,” she said, as pleasure began pulsating through her.

Lavelle smiled, pleased with her ability to control the Alpha’s enjoyment. She finished working her way up Andi’s chest area, arriving at the captain’s nipple line. She opened her mouth and began gently sucking and licking at the Captain’s left breast, letting her teeth dig into and gently the nip at the warm flesh. With her left hand, she started fondling Sullivan’s right tit, twisting and kneading, giggling as she felt the nipple hardening as it brushed her palm, refusing to give Sullivan the satisfaction of having both nipples stimulated simultaneously. “God damn it Lavelle,” Sullivan said, continuing to buck and moan under the younger Omega’s touch. Her arousal was now rolling off of her in waves.

Lavelle chuckled, inspired by the pheromones, as she used her right hand to feel her way down toward Sullivan’s thickening member. Taking it in her hand, she gently started rubbing it back and forth, letting the spray of the shower lubricate her ministrations. Her inner Omega purred as she felt Sullivan’s hips continue to gyrate under her touch. Kissing her way back down the Alpha’s chest, Lavelle eventually reached Sullivan’s hardening member with her mouth. Lavelle started nuzzling Sullvan’s groin, keeping her kissing going until she arrived at Sullivan’s ballsack, opening her mouth and letting her tongue lightly flick out as she ran it against Sullivan’s swelling balls. Kissing and licking Sullivan’s groin with her mouth, she simultaneously continued her stroking motion, pleasantly surprised when she could feel Andi’s knot starting to form during each outward stroke.

“Ugh, Rose, I’m coming,” Rose smiles inwardly as Sullivan’s words confirm what the tension in Sullivan’s ballsack was already telling her. Withdrawing her mouth from her roommates’ groin, Rose increases the pace of her stroking, varying her rhythm and stimulating Sullivan’s knot on each upstroke without gripping it directly. Sullivan succumbed to the pleasure pulsing through her as she erupted all over Lavelle’s chest. Lavelle keeps stroking as Sullivan lives through the climax, reveling in the sensation of her knot being milked.  
“You are exceptional” Sullivan smiles as Rose uses the shower to wash the cum off her chest, letting her contented pheromones warm the Omega

“Thank you!” Smiles Rose. The cumshot to her chest had left her hands clean, so she started stimulating Sullivan’s groin again, feeling her own core moisten in anticipation. Sullivan moved to block Rose’s hands from rubbing her groin again.

“Don’t worry, I got this,” says Sullivan. Helping Rose to her feat, she gently pushes Rose into the far wall of the shower, returning the hot kissing action that Rose was inundating her with earlier.

Rose was quite surprised that Sullivan was so good with her fingers as she felt her captain stroking her core. Sullivan eventually moved her thumb to gently stimulate Rose’s clit and was very content when Rose let out a gasp. Continuing to stroke, she gently groped Rose’s breasts with her left hand while her right furiously worked the midfielder’s pussy.

“Fuck” Lavelle said, enjoying the feeling of her captain’s ministrations as she rolled her headback and smiled. “Where’d you learn this?”  
Sullivan just chuckled. “You’d be surprised at how many young Omegas need help with their heats at college. A couple of freshmen didn’t want to take a knot my senior year, but they still wanted some light touching to help them through it. I learned a couple of the basics.”

“Pretty good… for just.... the basics” Lavelle managed to pant out, enjoying the patterning of Andi’s ministrations

“Oh yeah?” Andi grinned, as the hot spray of the shower lubricated her hands as she continued stroking. She could feel Lavelle’s groin tense, and was very satisfied as she heard Lavelle come.

“That’s it Rose, there you go, nice and easy” Sullivan cooed, letting some proud pheromones roll off of her, for both herself and Rose, as she continued to tease the midfielder with her fingers, coaxing Lavelle down from her high. She gently withdrew her fingers from inside the attacking midfielder, the Cincinnati native’s flanks heaving against the wall.

Lavelle sighed as she recovered from the orgasm, content with the evening’s activities. She reached to grab the bard of soap from its rack behind her leg. “Let me,” Sullivan said, reaching for the bar of soap.

“Alright fine, but I’m scrubbing you afterward.” The “friends with benefits” moniker meant that the pair sometimes felt the instinct to engage in behaviors typical of a mated pair, and Lavelle, while she appreciated the attention, dictated where the line was, even if it was blurry a lot of the time. Sullivan recognized the need for space, and allowed for the two of them to wash each other, in a weird, friendlike way. After the business part of the shower, the two of them grabbed towels of the racks and headed into the bedroom.

As Alpha and Omega came out of the bathroom, Lavelle left the room to grab her sleepwear while Sullivan went to the foot of her bed to grab her own. Sullivan expected Lavelle to return with her clothes, and she wasn’t surprised when Lavelle re-entered, pulling on her shirt. “Remind me who’s gonna be at this camp? I know I should know the rosters but I honestly have better things to worry about.”

“Really? Mal got cut and you don’t know exactly who she got cut for?”

Lavelle did stop at that. “Yeah I guess I was mad at the time, but the forwards are stacked right now; I haven’t had a chance to think about it one way or the other.”

“I suppose you don’t have to worry about it when you know you’re going to be on it if you’re healthy” Lavelle tilted her head, embarrassed, but Andi waved her off, letting her know she was joking. “Should be most of January camp, minus a few people. Qualifying roster is 20 right? So we’re missing a third.” Her mind was now wandering as she tilted her head, trying to process the roster. “Should be the world cup team, plus me, and I think Vlatko likes Williams as well? That’s why Mal got exed, probably.”

“She’ll come back”

“Of course” The disappointment of their roommate not making the team permeates the air for a little while. Sullivan allowed it to hang, but didn’t want to dwell on it. 

“Minus Long and Moe, plus Tierna’s told me her ankle still has her out. That’s 21. Can’t remember who the fifth cut was off the top of my head.” Both knew that Andi probably knew who the cut midfielders were purely because she was the last one on the depth chart.

Lavelle shook her head as she helped Sullivan make her bed. “It doesn’t matter too much. Figure it out when we get there. Unfortunate about Tierna though, although I suppose that might mean Sonnet might get more playing time. I really wanted to talk to her more though; she’s so...mysterious?”

“Ooh, does my Omega protectorate have a crush?”

“Stop it!” This time it was Lavelle’s turn to throw a pillow. “I don’t know, I just think that it’s weird she’s not really close to anyone.”

“She’s 21, and still more or less the newest to the team. Plus, word on the street she was handling Moe’s heats during the World Cup” Sullivan said. “So she must have been close to somebody.”  
Lavelle looked puzzled,“Wouldn’t Kling have just flown to France? Parsons would have been ok with it, by all accounts.”

“Yeah but in an emergency, I think she wanted someone to be there just in case?”

“Really? wouldn’t Alyssa just do it? She’s at least mated?”

Sullivan was mildly annoyed that she was expected to have all of the answers, but she found her train of thought came up with a reasonable one. “I think that Kling’s plan was to get to France in an emergency regardless. She didn’t want to bother asking Naeher or mess with Becky’s Alpha, because that would have been an awkward admittance of a possibility I don’t think she wanted to deal with.” Sullivan found that thinking like an Alpha got her to a pretty solid theory; “Would she have been okay with an unmated alpha helping her mate had Moe gone into heat? Almost assuredly not, but I’m betting that she was already so hopeful that that wouldn’t happen that she didn’t bother asking. Moe said she could have Tierna do it if necessary, and Kling realized then that she could pin Tierna against a wall at some point and just say, ‘Don’t mate her, don’t hurt her,’ with enough emphasis, and move on without having to internally acknowledge the risk. She was there for the England game and the Final anyway, so whatever.”

“Yeah your right”, Rose sighed and looked up. “I still think it’s weird that Tierna’s the quietest Alpha. Sometimes it almost seems-"

“Girl if you even think to say what I think you’re going to say” Sullivan warned, almost instinctively pushing down the anger pheremones she could feel swelling within her. Rose didn’t know why this was a touchy subject, but Sullivan needed to shut it down.

“I’m sorry. that was out of line.” Calling an Alpha a Beta, even in jest, was way out of line if there was any shred of truth behind the insult. Rose scolded herself for even thinking that of an Alpha.

After Andi calmed down, Lavelle wasn’t done though.“I just think it’s weird that she doesn’t even give me a baseline ‘I am alpha; fear me’ vibe. Like even Press can wisp her pheromones wherever she wants them to go, and most of the time she smells like a harmless mama bear, but underneath the surface you can tell her Alpha would flatten you if you wronged her Omega.”

“Rose, drop it.” Andi realized that she was about to let her annoyance out through her scent. She could have stopped it with a bit of concentration, but she allowed her feelings to accentuate the point.

Lavelle all of a sudden fell into a sea of terror; she had turned back to her friend and gotten a stone face and a wave of chemicals. She knew she had hurt her friend and the anger pheremones that Andi was giving off as a result had her inner Omega cowering in fear. The fact that Rose knew her friend rarely gave off any angry smells in her direction, especially when she wasn’t in rut, meant that she really had struck a chord, and the unintended wound that she had cut had to have been quite deep. This fact compounded the dueling sources of fear. “Sully I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit a nerve.”

Andi immediately went to her friend. The pheromones had done their job a little too well, she could tell she had scared her roommate and realized that she had overdone it. She switched from channeling her anger to radiating protection, glad to have moved off of the subject but realizing she had chosen a bit of a nuclear option. Rose thought she was angrier than she really was, and she had to fix it before she opened up a rift with the Omega. Taking her hands, in apology. “Sorry Rose, just don’t bash Tierna like that ok? She’s my college teammate, she’s our teammate.”

“It’s all right, I’m sorry I said anything” said a wilted Rose as she broke away, heading out of the room.

“Hey, you can still sleep in my bed you know” The desire to sleep in the arms of another was an Omega instinct the entire USWNT frequently satisfied, whether they were roommates in camp, or during the year during club play, or even on roadtrips. Sullivan slept with one of either Mal or Rose under her arm at least five nights of the week, and Mal wasn’t even there for Rose to compete for space with.

“Are you sure?” Rose was scenting the air and noted Andi’s alpha anger slipping away but she was happy to give her space. She knew she was a clingy Omega around Andi, but being a professional athlete meant you fought your own battles, and were capable of a certain amount of independence no matter what your orientation.

“Of course I’m sure, come on.” Andi didn’t want to let Rose scare herself off, despite her previous annoyance, feuding with Rose would be the worst possible outcome of the verbal snafu, and she really didn’t want the Omega thinking it was her own fault. Plus, she always valued her two Omega roomates’ company.

Rose noted that Andi was flooding the room with her happy pheromones and recognized the smile on her friend’s face as genuine. She smiled, feeling the comfort of her protector’s smells bask her in warmth.

“OK Alpha,” Rose smiled as she climbed into the bed.

“Shut the fuck up” Sullivan laughed, reaching to turn out the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd appreciate some feedback if people want to see this continue. If you do, drop your most off-the-wall pairing ideas in the comments; I have plenty of ideas but not much set in stone yet, and I'd appreciate the inspiration. Constructive criticism welcomed as well!


	2. Detectives Soran

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Lindsey can't shake an intuition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right gang, let's do this. Gonna be updating weekly. As an aside. I suppose some subset of people reading this won’t all be USWNT stans and won’t get all the references. If that’s you, welcome! Glad to have you! I’m writing this as and for someone fluent in both NWSL and USWNT twitter, but I’ll include at the end a brief glossary of the terms that someone not as familiar with the team or the WoSo world may not get at first glance.

Linsey Horan had never been more terrified of being right.

As a soccer player, she had always tended to listen when the Alpha inside her was telling her something. The shift in pheremones was often subtle enough to feel like an instinct, and often she couldn’t tell whether it was her gut or her Alpha that was contributing to her dominance on the soccer pitch; her ability to win the ball, or make an aerial challenge in the box. She supposed they were one and the same.

So it bothered her when her Alpha refused to settle during January camp. It kept intermittently telling her that something was off, like an unnamed tension in the room. Her alpha would shift; she would sense that it sensed something, feel it picking up a scent, but whenever she tried scenting the air a second time, she couldn’t discern any difference from the normal, latent scents of her teammates. But then it would always pop up again. During scrimmages, during mealtimes, and even during film sessions, but she could never quite isolate the source. Towards the end of January camp, she had started taking a mental note of whenever it was showing up, not only because she was curious as to what it was, but because the constant nagging was fucking annoying. It was the weirdest thing, she hadn’t even bothered telling Sonnet yet, because she hadn’t wanted to bother her Omega with this non-nothing, but it constantly distracted her from whatever Soccer thing she was supposed to be paying attention to when it showed up. Towards the end of January camp, it finally popped up again in a midfielder only film review. But even that mystified her. It popped in and out, but she couldn’t really smell it off Sully. She would have noticed anything wonky about the rest of the mids in the room. She had won a World Cup with all of them, and she had dealt with the full palette of smells from them all. She supposed it could have been the guy running the session, but Milan was one of Vlatko’s Beta tactical nerds; it could have been him, but Betas rarely gave off scents worth investigating, and a Beta strong enough to regulate his scents in the manner where it constantly disappeared would be almost unheard of.

So it had to be Sully.

She had decided it wasn’t worth confronting her about the issue, not even able to put a finger on what was going on. The other Alpha midfielder could handle herself. She had had a chat with Lavelle about it, asking Rose if something was off about her alpha protector, telling her about the weird smell she had been smelling all camp. Lavelle had been nonplussed. “Sure I’ll check it out, but I don’t smell anything?” Lindsey had felt Lavelle’s fear creep up at the possibility of missing something from her alpha friend, so she reassured her by exuding her confidence through her scent.

“Yeah, but just double check.” Lindsey said, reassuring Lavelle it was probably nothing.

“Ok.” Lavelle shrugged and moved off, ready to get to whatever needed getting to in the soccer world.

January camp had ended before Lavelle had a chance to talk to Sully; players dispersed to their homes for a few days. before assembling again for the tournament in Houston.

\--

Lindsey walked down the hall toward Lavelle’s room the day the team reassembled. She had made a point to ask about the Sullivan thing before the Qualifying tournament started; it probably warranted nothing more than a conversation with Sully, but she wanted to get it out of the way before soccer needed to become the focus. She knocked on the door of the Spirit midfielders' hotel room.

“Come in,” Rose said. Lindsey noticed the giggling that accompanied the response; Rose wasn’t alone.

“Hey, Rose” She said, poking her head in.

Mewis, Lavelle, and Sonnet were all gathered together, chatting about Rose’s dog, Wilma, and chuckling with each other.

“Hi Lindsey!” Sonnett said, getting off the bed to greet her alpha..

“Hi little one, there you are,” Lindsey said, leaning down to nuzzle her Omega’s nose.

“Do you want to go to dinner?” Sonnett said, looking to spend some extra time with her Alpha before the team meeting began. 

“I’d love to,” said Lindsey.“But I have to ask Rose something first”

Rose had been scrolling through Wilma pictures with Mewis but turned her head up at that. 

“Hey, did you have time to check in on that thing I talked to you about?” Lindsey asked, resenting the subtlety slightly, but figuring it was worth keeping it private until she knew what “it” was.

“Um, I kind of forgot? But it has to be nothing. I have to believe if there was something there, I would have smelled it.” 

Lindsey probably would have continued that line of questioning further. She could have gotten into Lavelle about differences in behavior, or even tried asking about any weird feelings within Rose’s Omega. Her alpha would probably have come out, intimidating Lavelle into feeling guilty for continuing to allow this distraction during qualifying.

But that was unnecessary, for on the word “smelled”, the scent had reappeared.

Like normal, it was almost imperceptible, dropping into the room with a strong whiff before abating almost instantly. Unlike the normal irritation, this time, it was a brief flash of fear, but instinct told her that the source of the two scents was the same. This time, she knew what to expect, and that combined with the low number of people in the room let her know exactly where it was coming from.

And it was coming from Sam.

And just like that, Lindsey knew she was right. But the reason it had taken this long to pick up on it had to mean Sam was disguising her scents for some reason.

And that, in itself, was terrifying.

\--

Lindsey made her way to one of the training pitches outside the hotel. Sam’s scent pattern was fluctuating, but it wasn’t hard to scent her baseline pattern this morning, allowing Lindsey to follow Mewis to the practice field. She found Mewis lightly juggling the ball. Lindsey noticed the constant scent of irritation in the air more than she normally had all camp, figuring the combination of exertion and the fact that Mewis was alone meant she was letting her scent go a little more.

“Hey Sam”, she said, heading onto the pitch.

“Lindsay,” said Sam, not breaking her routine. She was keeping her workout routine light--the Haiti game was that day-- but Horan got the sense that this wasn’t the first time the Omega had been on the pitch when nobody else was. 

“Mind if I join you?” Lindsey said.

“Sure,” Mewis responded, sending the Alpha the ball. Horan had expected to grab her own ball but was pleasantly surprised when Mewis sent her hers. They just toe-tapped in silence for a moment. The drill was simple, but Lindsey enjoyed the cathartic experience of getting a couple touches on the ball. She figured Mewis was using this to let her guard down away from the team, to work out whatever she was dealing with.

But she didn’t have to do it alone.

“Sam, what’s bothering you.” Lindsey stopped the ball with her foot, trying to put her foot down with the Omega. 

“Nothing,” Sam said, looking irritated that Horan had stopped the drill.

Lindsey reluctantly restarted, kicking the ball to the tall Omega, trying to keep the conversation casual. “It’s not nothing Sam; I almost decked Sullivan until I figured out it was you who was smelling weird.”

“So that was what you were talking to Rose about a couple days ago” Sam said, resignedly. She kept the drill going. “Look Linds, it’s nothing, I have it handled” 

Lindsey let her protective pheromones wash toward the midfielder as she tried again. “Come on Sam, if it was nothing you wouldn’t be out here?”

“Damn it Linds. Would you Alphas stop thinking us Omegas can’t handle ourselves? Let it go! I have it handled!” With that Sam pops the ball onto her right foot and tags one into the net. Turning back to Lindsey, she calms down a little bit. “Let it go. I’ll see you back at the hotel.” Sam stormed back the way Lindsey had come from.

Lindsey stares after Sam, left in a pool of the Omega’s irritability, wondering what the hell it was that was bothering Sam.

\--

“Hey babe!” said Lindsey, coming into the room a little later than her Omega. It was the evening after the final group stage match; Lindsey and Emily had both logged time in a 6-0 handling of Costa Rica. Lindsey had had to touch on some team logistics before returning to their room.

“Hey!” Said Emily, popping off the bed, coming over to greet her Alpha. The couple kissed for a moment, a sense of contentedness filling the air, the two basking in their combined scent.

“I really appreciate the kiss, but you didn’t have to get up for me everytime.” Lindsey said. “It’s a match day, we’re all tired.”

“I know, I just wanted you to know how happy I am to see you! This won’t be all the time, I’m just giving you a little something to remember me by” Sonnet said, running her hand down Lindsey’s front and playfully arriving at her groin. Lindsey could feel her arousal building for her Omega, but she groaned in pleasure and frustration as she grabbed Sonnet’s arms and laid them at her sides. Now was not the time, there was a tournament to play.

“You don’t feel like I forced you out, did I?” Lindsey knew the answer, but it felt necessary to ask it again.

“I mean, I don’t think a lot of alphas would have accepted the trade, but I know you would have fought against it had I wanted you to. I respect your decision; we made it together.” Sonnet sat down against the bed. “But, I’m gonna miss your hugs.” 

“I’m gonna miss you too, Sonnet, but we’ll still see each other lots. The distance will make us stronger when we are together.”

“I know, I know” This had not been the first time that the two had had this conversation. They knew that if they continued to spend all of their time together, they’d eventually become lost in the other’s identities. Ashlyn and Ali had often spoken about how spending time in different cities was really important for their independence from one another. They’d explained how that made it seem like relying on each other was a choice, rather than a necessity. They’d waited a long time to finally mate, and when they did, they were stronger for it. When Sonnett and Lindsey first started dating, Lindsey had said that she wouldn't mate an Omega until they had spent 3 years together. That had been a year and a half ago. When Coach Parsons had called them both and asked if they were okay being separated, they had both taken it as a good opportunity. But the time that they’d have to spend away from each other was rapidly approaching, and they both knew it.

Lindsey smiled sadly at her mate-to-be. Emily’s sadness stung the air. The pheromones were always the worst part.

“I’m gonna change,” Lindsey said, pulling away from Sonnett as she made her way to the bathroom.

“Good call, good call,” Emily said, allowing Lindsey to get ready for bed as she fell back onto the hotel bed, pulling out her phone. Sonnet had a carefully curated reddit account that specifically avoided anything women’s soccer related. She had a separate one she used when she wasn’t playing in a tournament, but this one was for situations where she just wanted to disconnect from soccer before falling asleep. She had supposed that she could make like one of the older omega defenders and read a book. Ali loved to read, and now that the two were going to be holding down a backline together, she could learn more than just soccer from the more experienced Omega defender.

But let’s be real, memes are the superior form of entertainment. She scrolled through some decent reddit content for a little while, closed her phone, and then curled up and started going to sleep.

A few minutes later Lindsey came out of the bathroom, crawling onto the bed and wrapping herself around Omega, ignoring the second queen size mattress in the hotel room, instead choosing to be the big spoon as the two snuggled together.

“Sonny?” she said, after a moment.

“Yeah Linds?”

“I need to ask you for something.”

Lindsey hadn’t moved, but Sonnet noted the hint of nerves that her Alpha was giving off in her scent.

“What is it, Alpha?” she said as she turned over and faced her mate-to-be, the pet name indicating her openness to whatever Lindsey was asking. Her hand moved to start tracing patterns in Lindsey’s shoulder.

“I think something’s bothering Sam,” said Lindsey quietly, comforted by her partner's touch while she explained her predicament.

“What do you mean?”

“She’s just...irritated at practice. She keeps playing at it like it’s nothing but I can smell it on her. She’s trying to disguise it, but I can smell her lying to me, even if I can’t pick up on the irritation itself. ”

“It’s probably nothing,” Sonnet said gently, knowing that Lindsey would fiercely defend any of the team’s younger Omegas. She loved that about her, but knew that the tall eight could handle herself.

“I know babe, but this took me basically the whole of January camp to pick up on. Something’s bothering her and it hasn’t gone away yet.”

“If it is something, maybe you’ll finally make it into the eleven.”

That earned a playful shove from the Alpha; the two breaking into a fit of giggling.

“Obviously not like that. Look, I know it could be nothing, but if it is something, I really don’t want to leave it alone. It really bothers me that she’s disguising her scents. Would you just, talk to her at some point, get a read on the situation?”

“You want me to avoid Abby?” The question hung in the air. “I don’t like where that’s going.” Going behind the Alpha’s back was bad if she found out that the other pair knew Sam was in trouble, but they didn’t know, not yet. 

“I don’t think that Abby is the cause, but I also kind of doubt she’s talked to her about it. God forbid something is happening, but I don’t want to rule out anything.” Lindsey sighed, knowing that her body of evidence amounted to an inconsistent smell and a single training conversation. But her alpha knew, instinctively, that something was wrong, and to a lesser extent, that telling Mewis’ Alpha wasn’t the move. “Look, just talk to Sam, get a read?”

“I can probably gather her and Rose in Rose’s room and get some bonding going, do a little recon. It’ll pass as routine bonding time, and she can probably talk about different things there then she can with you or Abby.” All of the Omega’s were pretty close on the national team, they tended to fight for each other in tough situations; Emily could probably make a reasonable excuse for isolating the Omegas from the Alphas.

“Thanks babe.” Emily could smell Lindsey’s scent shift from nervous to contented, and in that moment realized her Alpha was more nervous about Sam than she had let on. 

“Of course” she said. Conversation over, she turned over to let Lindsey return to being the big spoon, happy as ever to fall asleep in her Alpha’s arms.

\--

Rose Lavelle saw Emily Sonnet come up to her as she entered the dining hall to get breakfast the day before the Mexico game.

“Hey Rose, come here I need to show you something.” Rose got the impression that saying no wasn’t an option, so she turned back the way she came, following Sonnet as she made her way through the lobby of the hotel, eventually making their way towards a back hallway no one would ever go to if they weren’t looking for it. "How does she have time for this shit. Don’t we have a tournament?"

“Sonnett, I know you love exploring hotels, but I gotta eat” Rose said, eventually catching up to Sonnett by some random historical painting in what looked to be mostly a staff hallway.

“Yeah, I know. Rose, I need you to complain about no Omegas being around and demand they all hang out with you on Saturday.”

“What? Why?” Rose didn't know what she had expected, but it wasn't this.

“Look, it’s unimportant, but it’s worth it. trust me?” Sonnet noticed Rose’s look of confusion. “Just send a text to the groupchat and I’ll do the rest. I’ll even text to remind you on Saturday” 

“Oookay?” Rose had no idea what was going on, entirely weirded out by the song and dance, but she could smell that Sonnett was at least somewhat genuine in her request.

“Thanks Rose, I appreciate it,” She brought the Omega in for a quick embrace. “Forget all about it, I’ll text you on Saturday.” She patted the younger Omega’s chest and went back to breakfast the way that she came. “Let’s go qualify.” 

Rose literally had no idea what had just happened, but she rolled her eyes and forgot about it. They had to beat Mexico. She’d deal with Sonnet’s shenanigans after the job was done.

\--

“Everything okay with you Sam?”

True to form, Lavelle had completely forgotten about Sonnett’s request until about two hours ago. It was all Mexico from that breakfast until the final whistle blew, as it needed to be. Despite being the overwhelming favorite, losing the game was not an option. They had prepared for that game like they had for Spain at the world cup. The mentality was the same. Once they had won, they had spent all of that Saturday in recovery, knowing that they would have to play again Sunday, so Lavelle really hadn’t had the chance to process anything non-soccer until about 6 o'clock, about 20 minutes after the mandatory recovery session had ended. Sonnett had texted Lavelle to remind her to pull the stunt.

Remembering that Sonnet was quite serious on Thursday, and recognizing that whatever it was should get addressed, Lavelle had pulled out her phone and complained about not seeing anyone as they all ran off with their alphas to their home markets. Emily had then suggested heading to Lavelle’s room after dinner and watching a movie. Andi, Rose’s roommate, had poked fun at the Omegas and their “mandatory fun” and left to go hang with AD, which left Mewis, Sonnett, and Rose to hang out in Rose’s room. They had even asked if Mal wanted to FaceTime, and a tablet gave the three a nice view of their Mal's kitchen, rounding out the young Omegas on the roster.

“Is Lynn around?” Mal asked, looking around the group, after the Omegas who had made it to the tourney had done some initial checking in with their passed-up teammate.  
The two shorter Omegas looked at Sam sheepishly, wondering if they should have more explicitly summoned the tall midfielder’s Courage teammate, who hadn’t been around the team in a while, and was making friends again as she got back into the USWNT camp.  
“It’s fine, she’s good falling in with Crystal and JJ.” Sam said.

“Good! Everyone else doing ok?”

“I’m Good!” Lavelle said softly, “My legs feel a little like putty though, we’ll see how this game goes tomorrow” 

“Tell me about it,” said Mewis.

Emily laughed quietly. “Okay, we get it, you guys both scored in the qualifying game”

“Hey Em at least you got to be there!” Mal said. They all laugh a little at that, but the three in the room sobered up to check on their lone Omega. 

“Hey Mal, we didn’t mean it.” Says Emily. 

“No, seriously guys, it’s fine. I’ll be there next time, you have my word” None of the Omegas could scent Mal from 1000 miles away, but even the screen made it clear that Mal oozed confidence. 

“Everything okay with you Sam?” Mal hadn’t really heard a lot from the tall midfielder.

Mewis had been lost in her own train of thought, jostling herself out at mention of her name.  
“Yeah I’m fine.” She said dismissively.

Sonnett wasn’t returning to Lindsey with that as the progress report. “Are you sure? Lindsey seems to think something’s bothering you.” When Sam didn’t immediately respond, Sonnett pressed her advantage. “She seems to think you’re disguising your scent”

Lavelle’s face lit up, then immediately snapped back to attention when she saw the seriousness on her friends’ faces. Mewis, however, felt her friends picking up the trail, realizing she’d rather know exactly how close to the truth they were. “What is it Rose”

“Oh, I had just caught a whiff of something brief when Lindsey asked me about Andi’s latent scents, on the day we got to qualifying camp. I thought it could mean something but thought I was imagining things. I had forgotten about it till now.”

“Oh shit” Sonnett said. She had noticed it too, but just assumed it was nothing from how quickly it was gone. She realized now that it meant everything Lindsey said after the Costa Rica game was accurate. 

Mewis looked at the other two Omegas and realized that the jig was up. She had to give them something, but that was the issue, she couldn’t tell them what was bothering her. She looked at the to Omegas and could smell the concern rolling off of them in waves. It was the concern and love she felt that finally broke her guard down.

“You guys are right, something has been bothering me. But I really don’t want to tell you what it is. I will say that it’s 100 percent my issue. It doesn’t affect the team, and it’s not an issue of my personal safety, it’s not even really that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. It’s affecting me, but not really during soccer situations. So I’m asking that you guys stay out of it”

Mewis could smell the wheels turning in the Omega’s heads. She even noted the lack of background noise, and with a quick glance to her left, noted Mal had stopped cleaning the apartment, giving Mewis her full attention.

Lavelle spoke first. “Does Abby know about this?”

Mewis let her full guard down, wearing her tiredness and her frustration on her sleeve as she prepared to make her toughest ask yet. “No. And I’d rather not tell her. It’s really not that big a deal, and while she definitely would want to know, I don’t think it’s relevant enough to note it.” That last part wasn’t quite true, and the other Omega’s could probably smell her mild obfuscation.

“It’s absolutely not her fault in any way” She said that truthfully, hoping the other Omegas would let her leave it at that.

Lavelle and Sonnett looked at each other, and they each smelled the other’s hint of resolve. From that, they each instantly knew that the other had gone through the same thought process; they both realized that Mewis was still hiding something, but it was pretty clear that the Omega didn’t want Abby finding out yet, and that was the end of it. Every Alpha on the USWNT could grill them and neither Omega would tell them anything, even though they both knew rationally that it probably wouldn’t get to that. But Mewis was asking the Omegas to protect her, and the two Omegas would do so. End of story.

Mewis watched the look pass between the two in a matter of seconds and a large flow of happiness and relief oozed out of her body. The feeling that her two friends had her back, unconditionally, almost made her cry. The two smaller Omegas crawled up on the older Omegas stomach, hugging the strongest Omega of their sub-pack while basking in the warmth of the older Omega’s body. 

“We’ve got your back Sam” Emily said.

“We’re in your corner, always” Lavelle affirmed.

Pugh kept watching the scene unfold from on her phone screen. “Guys, not being with you in this moment hurts almost as much as missing the whole goddamn tournament.”  
The four of them all chuckle at that, tension rapidly being replaced by relief.

“I’ve got your back Sam” Mal finishes quietly.

“Thanks guys,” Mewis said, emotionally exhausted as she felt the love of her friends.

\--  
A quiet knock alerted Andi that somebody was at her hotel room door. She opened it as quietly as possible.

“Hey.” She heard Lindsey’s low alto murmur.

“Hi.” Sullivan said, refusing to take her eyes off of Rose’s bed. The three Omegas were sleeping, Sonnett and Rose curled up comfortably against either side of Mewis’s huge frame. Rose had texted Andi that the Omegas were having a sleepover, and Andi knew better than to argue; Omegas could be quite resolute when they made up their mind about something, especially together. Andi hadn’t been kicked out of the room though, so here she was, quietly watching the omegas before she herself headed to bed.  
“I just wanted to check on Sonnett,” said Lindsey.

“Of course.” The two Alphas stood in silence for a moment, content to watch their sleeping Omegas.

“You can sleep here if you want,” Sullivan said, keeping her voice low. 

“No, they’re ok. We have a game tomorrow.” It wasn’t worth disrupting the pregame routine by sleeping on acouch. Not for this. The Omegas weren’t afraid of anything, they were just enjoying each other’s closeness.

“Ok. I’ve got them.” Sullivan said. 

“Thanks Sully.”

“Of course.”

Lindsey looked over the sleeping Omega trio for another moment, basking in the comfort the three of them were exuding, before quietly stepping out of the door again.

Glossary:

JJ is a *somewhat outdated?* nickname for Julie Ertz

*Lynn* Williams plays on the North Carolina Courage, a (wildly successful) women's club team, as do Mewis, Crystal Dunn, and Abby Dahlkemper

*Spirit* refers to The Washington Spirit, another women's club team, captained by Andi Sullivan. Rose Lavelle is also there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Let me know about any more fun pairing ideas you want to see in the comments, most of the storylines are already set but some pairings are still fairly malleable. As always, constructive criticism is very much welcomed, either in the comments or over DM


	3. USWNT, Assemble.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with a fan encounter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright Friends, Chapter Three. The Challenge Cup is here! And so is The Discourse. I don't really want to get into The Discourse, but the Casey Short thing being on the Verizon highlight reel is....troubling, especially for forty seconds or whatever it was. This is certainly not the place for the discourse, but I did want to acknowledge its existence. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
> 
> Chapter 4 may be a tad late, uploaded on Monday instead of Sunday next week. 
> 
> Also, we skip to SheBelieves.

“You’d think that by winning a World Cup, we would become immune to random negative events.”

Alyssa Naeher looked up from Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime” and chuckled at Tierna Davidson’s joke. The two of them were decked out in plain clothes, baseball hats and sunglasses, sitting in their gate area at O’Hare. The USWNT often took charter flights when flying as a group, but players typically flew commercial to get from their home markets to camp. Since both had to start preseason with the Red Stars directly after the SheBelieves Cup, the goalkeeper and the young defender had both returned to Chicago to prepare before continuing on to Orlando. They had had US Soccer book their flight together. The two Alphas were both used to traveling alone, but neither of them minded the other’s company.

“Thought you were the STEM major. Chaos theory and whatnot. Randomness is random.” Naeher said, turning her attention to the crowd in the rest of the lounge.

“Yeah, but the second half of the England game? The non-handball on Kelley against France? Felt like the universe wanted us to make the final” Davidson replied.

“You know how hard we worked.”

“Oh yeah, but every World Cup winner needs a little luck. Look at the frickin’ Germany game in 2015. Things just clicked in our direction. Now we’ve returned to the world of incidental flight delays. Should be a crime.” Davidson deadpanned.

Naeher chuckled “It is what it is. At least the plane’s here.” 

“Fair enough” Davidson popped her earbuds back into her ears and returned to listening to a Numberphile video, choosing an episode that focused on permutations as they pertained to the number of possible chess games. She was a nerd. She laid her head back to relax while the previous flight deplaned. It was unusual for the soccer stars to spend this much time in the waiting room, typically using premium services to minimize their time in the airport by lowering the variance in security times. But even they couldn’t get around the plane being 20 minutes late. As Neaher put it, stuff happens.

“Are you Tierna Davidson?”

Tierna felt an elbow from Alyssa as she roused herself from her stupor. In front of her was an Omega girl, about eight years old, missing a front tooth, with the cutest look of interest on her face.

Tierna briefly considered leaving her sunglasses on, giving her some deniability, but the flight delay meant there was no reason she couldn’t say hi to a few fans, and this one was particularly cute.

“I am!” Taking off her sunglasses, Tierna noticed a beta woman observing with interest from afar. She assumed that that was the kid's mother and was happy she was aware as to what was going on. “You’re a smart girl, a lot of famous people wear these sunglasses to avoid being seen in airports.” 

“I could recognize your face!”

“Nice Job!” said Tierna. “What’s your name?” 

“Hannah.” Hannah replied sweetly.

“Cool name Hannah! Do you recognize my friend”

“Alyssa Naeher!” The kid’s missing tooth caused her speech to slur slightly pronouncing Alyssa’s name. So cute.

“Nice Job Hannah.” Naeher said, also taking off of her sunglasses.

“How long have you been watching our soccer team?” Tierna asked, starting to fawn playfully over the young girl.

“Since the world cup” the girl responded.

“Cool! Who’s your favorite player” continued Tierna, realizing this fan interaction was going longer than necessary, but she was enjoying it more than she expected, and realized she had nothing better to do while they waited for boarding to begin.

“You” the kid said with a sheepish grin.

“Who's your favorite player besides me or Tierna?” Alyssa said knowingly.

“Kelley O’Hara.” 

“Good choice Hannah” said Tierna, smiling. “Very good choice.”

“Can we take a picture?” Hannah was adorable. 

“Of course!” Tierna said.

“Mom do you want in,” Alyssa said to the Beta mom. She was letting the kid handle the interaction, and was frankly surprised when the soccer people had been who Hannah had thought they were, expecting to have to jump in and apologize to whomever the lookalikes were profusely. Now that the two celebrities appeared unbothered by her Omega daughter, she was watching the interaction closely, anxious to not offend.

“No it’s fine, I’m not as into it as she is.” 

The two National Teamers kneel next to either side of Hannah while Hannah’s mom took the photo.

“Nice job!” Said Hannah’s mom as she comes over to the three of them.

Hannah, starting to get comfortable with the two soccer players, turned to Tierna and said, innocently, “You don’t smell like an Alpha” 

The mood shifted instantly, Tierna’s warmth dropped momentarily as Naeher’s hackles bristled at the slight on her teammate. Naeher could even feel a moderate amount of terror coming from the Beta mom; Hannah had messed up, badly, and everyone in the room knew it but her.

Hannah’s eyes widened as her young Omega finally noticed all the negative pheromones in the room. Tierna noticed that and pulled the fan into her with a hug. “Hey, it’s ok.” Tierna radiated her warmth as much as she could but she can’t hide that the young Omega’s innocent remark wounded her. 

The Omega pulls away from the Alpha soccer player, ashamed of herself and smelling the hurt on her hero. She runs over to her mother, head in her hands, Her mother’s terror is still rolling off her but she hugs her child for comfort. “I am so sorry.” She says over her daughter to the Soccer stars.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tierna said, obviously still upset but trying to calm down. Naeher’s Alpha was bristling and this Beta mom didn’t need the terror. “Hannah’s a good kid”

“I’m sorry, she should know better, I-.”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine” Alyssa says, recognizing Tierna was trying to move past it; and realizing that Angry Alpha Alyssa, while the natural response to this situation, was not the productive one.

“I’m sorry Ms. Davidson.” Hannah’s voice was small, the Omega pressing herself up to her mom.

Tierna tried to console the Omega, but didn’’t want to intimidate her, content to speak to her at a distance. “Don’t worry about it Hannah, it was really nice to meet you!”

The PA announces the start of the pre-boarding routine and the soccer stars move to grab their stuff. Heading back toward the boarding line, Tierna goes up to Hannah and says to her back, “Hey, I want you to look at that picture and remember how happy I am, ok? And you can always call me Tierna” 

Hannah’s face is still in her mother’s stomach. “Ok Tierna, I’m still sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it kid” Tierna finally could exude some warmth again, letting it roll off of her as she headed to the boarding lane.

Hannah’s mother was relieved when the two strong alphas’ boarding group was called, and she and Hannah headed back to their seats to wait for the economy section’s turn.

\--

Upon takeoff, Tierna’s Alpha scented a hint of tension coming off of Alyssa and noted her knuckles digging into the armrests of the plane. “We’re gonna be fine” She reassured the Alpha keeper. 

“Yeah, I know, my Alpha just doesn’t, especially during this part.”

“Understandable.” Tierna silently wished that her Alpha would give her grief for shit like this. She could still smell fine, but it would be nice for her instincts to take her for a little while. 

Needing to get her Alpha’s mind off of the takeoff, Alyssa turned her attention to the elephant in the room. “You were really nice with Hannah, especially when she said what she did.” She thought twice about mentioning it on the plane, but the drone of takeoff noise would disguise their conversation from the rest of the first class cabin.

“It’s not a big deal,” Davidson said casually. “She’s a young Omega, everyone makes mistakes”

“Pretty big mistake” said Alyssa, letting the comment hang in the air.

Tierna turned to Naeher and raised an eyebrow. “You want to say something else?” 

Naeher noticed an uncharacteristic amount of challenge to the younger Alpha’s statement, pleasantly surprised, but struggled to say something; she was caught being way out of line. Tierna took the tension away with, “Seriously, Lys, it’s fine. You didn’t have to terrify the poor mom.”

“Fair enough.”

The two stare at each other for a little while before returning to their in-flight routines.

\--

The flight to Orlando was uneventful, the routine delay not marring the travel time.

Upon landing, Tierna checked her phone, noticing a text that shouldn’t have been there pop up and letting a cloud of warmth dart through her. She responded appropriately and put her phone away, hoping Alyssa didn’t notice.

After deplaning, the two of them headed over to baggage claim and Alyssa immediately sniffed the air, recognizing a familiar scent. She turned to find a tall blonde woman in sunglasses,a ballcap, and a Penn State sweatshirt subtly observing the pair.

“Becky!” said Naeher, heading over to her mate. 

“Hey Babe!” Said the best defender in USWNT history, wrapping her arms around and kissing her mate.

“I’ll just...get the bags,” Tierna said, turning her attention away from the PDA and towards the baggage carousel.

“Babe, you didn’t need to come get me. You know how I feel I about you traveling alone.” The Alpha was nuzzling her Omega’s mating mark, but the center back knew that she had scared her Alpha, feeling Alyssa’s fear come thrumming down their bond.

“I know, but you know that I can handle myself.” said Becky, patting her Alpha on the back.

“I know you can, but you know how I would feel if something had happened on a trip purely for me.” 

“I know babe, but I played it safe. I texted T when I arrived and she texted back where your bags were gonna be. I was in the car the whole time.” Overhearing the two, Tierna rolled her eyes, knowing that Becky had probably headed in as soon as she texted. Becky was a mated Omega, Naeher’s latent scent from both her mating mark and her sweatshirt would have been enough to drive off random horny Alphas, and this was 2020, random Alphas weren’t gonna come onto a random Omega they met on the street.  _ At least, not in a public place, _ Davidson thought sadly. They still had a long way to go.

“No, you’re right.” Naeher said, recognizing her own irrationality. “Thanks for picking me up” She said, planting another kiss on her Omega’s lips “I like the sweatshirt”

“Yeah? You like it when I wear your clothes? I like feeling your scent on me.” The two chuckle at each other, continuing to kiss in between sentences.

“Are you two gonna keep it PG or am I gonna need to find an Uber?” Tierna now had both Alyssa’s and her own duffel bag. 

Alyssa pulled away from her Omega reluctantly. “Thanks T,” she said, grabbing the duffel and heading for the parking lot, a bag in each arm. 

Becky looked at Tierna, also lifting a bag in each arm along with her backpack. “You want me to carry something?” 

“No, it’s fine, the bags are actually pretty light, your Alpha’s guns are overrated.”

\--

Tierna happily sat with the three other recent Stanford grads at the hotel dinner. That afternoon had been pretty uneventful. Becky had driven them to their hotel in a US soccer car rental she had co-opted. It was nice hanging out in the car with the mated pair. They appreciated their time together as they didn’t get to spend much time together during the season. Becky was an extremely mature Omega, Tierna found the few times she got to watch Becky and Naeher, she saw the defender give in to her Omega a little bit, allowing herself to fold into her Alpha’s love. It was cute. 

After an afternoon of getting checked in, unpacking in her room and a little bit of reading, she had coordinated with the recent Stanford grads on what time they wanted to hit the dining room. There were other times when teammates were allowed to go out for food (within established dieting parameters; they were professionals) but most of the time, the team ate using the same dining hall. Today was no exception, and Jordan Dibiasi, Andi, and Tierna, and Jane Campbell had all made a point of getting food at the top of the dinner hour, allowing time for the three Alphas and their Omega college teammate to catch up.

“So Jordy, how do you feel about Sully abandoning you again?” Said Campbell.

“I did not abandon Jordy!” Sullivan’s mild indignation was amusing.

“Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just think it’s weird that the supposed “Captain” of your club side is running of to room with her *Alpha* World Cup winning friend! After she didn’t want to room with you two were drafted in the same class! To the same team!” Campbell at this point is cracking up in laughter, Andi has her head in her food in embarrassment, Dibiasi is looking at all her Alphas with no idea what to do or say, and Tierna is just shaking her head, amused that Campbell is asserting herself in this particular manner.

“It’s not her fault,” Dibiasi said, laughing. “Come on, you know this! I was happy rooming with Aubrey, and Mal and Rose wanted to room together, and Sully wasn’t having it. A solid compromise”

“Oh right. I forgot the Spirit are like two-thirds Omegas. Guess there isn’t enough Alpha going around!” Campbell was in full banter mode.

Tierna visibly winced at that last jibe, but they were alone at the table and the three others were paying too much attention to themselves to notice the brief change in atmosphere. 

“Anyway, I would have thought she’d love to watch out for you this camp, but instead she’s running off to room with the *cool* Alpha.”

“Hey, excuse me for wanting to room with someone I’ve actually played with in the last 18 months.” Ribbing Campbell was the perfect opportunity for Tierna to get back into the conversation.

“Don’t worry Andi, it’s fine,” Said Jordan.

“You’re too much of a hassle anyway” Said Andi chuckling. Turning serious for a moment, Andi continued. “Mal did get traded though. If you're uncomfortable with Aubrey or for whatever reason you need-”

“It’s totally fine”, Dibiasi said. “Bledsoe has my back. Weren’t you gonna bring in Sanchez?”

“Yeah we’ll see how Preseason goes.” Sullivan said. “She’s on a short lease for now. Hatch has her” The older Omega would ensure the younger one got accustomed to professional life. “Glad you’re ok”

“Of course” Said Dibiasi.

“Speaking of Mal,” Campbell said, turning her attention to the front of the room

“WOO-WOO, Stanford girls are in the house!” Sonnett yelled, entering the room with Mewis, Lavelle, and Pugh. Lindsey and Abby trailed behind the Omega gang, giving them their space. Tierna heard airhorn noises announcing their presence in the quiet, team dinner setting, and realized that they were coming from Sonnett’s phone, because of course they were.

“Jordan!” Lavelle exclaimed, happily coming over to sit next to her club teammates. Mal followed, turning a chair the other way around to straddle it, looking at her instagram.

“Hi Rose,” Jordan said, smiling at the senior Omega and giving her a hug.

“You two gonna get dinner?” Mewis said, from over at the buffet line with the two Alphas.

“Hm. I suppose” Mal put her phone away, somehow still bouncing with energy despite the travel day as she made her way over to the buffet table.

“Hi T!” Rose said warmly, heading over as well.

Tierna hadn’t really expected the lurch inside her to be so vehement at that.

Her Alpha was extremely quiet most of the time, it didn’t come out for much, but she could feel it flare at the attention from Lavelle. She was confused. She had always had a tremendous respect for the older midfielder; she was one of the youngest players to see serious time at the World Cup, and her awe and reverie at all of her teammates was one of the reasons her Alpha refused to come out, but the desire for the older midfielder was a new one. 

“Hey Rose” Tierna said after a minute, not really having a better response than that. Rose was already halfway to the buffet line, either not hearing or not acknowledging the response, having probably moved on to bigger and better things. Tierna turned her attention back to the Dash keeper, engaging in conversation, while ignoring Mal and Rose dancing over the buffet line, an act that irritated Sam.

Eventually, the four Omegas and the Alpha mate and mate-to-be joined the Stanford clan at their table, still excitedly chattering on about the impending camp. 

After a little bit of eating, Lavelle asked “Hey Sonnett, did Kelley bring Mario Kart?”

Sonnett breaks down in a fit of laughter. “Rose, you are so terrible at Mario Kart.” 

“Hey that’s mean,” Rose started pouting and Tierna was almost annoyed when she felt her Alpha flaring up again. “All I wanted was to have a fun game night.” 

“Op here it is, Rose doing Rose things” Mal says. 

Sullivan picks up the slack, making a big show of bowing over the table “All hail Queen Lavelle, the first of her name, sister to her patron saint, Wilma Jean--”

“Guys” Lavelle says, blushing. Tierna fought off the instincts to come to the Omega’s defense, the rest of the Omegas laughing at Rose’s desire to play the video game.

“Sonnett, can we please do a game night after the team meeting?” Rose makes a big show of politeness.

“Yes Rose, dear,” Sonnett says, rubbing her hand playfully over the other Omega’s face. “I’ll check with Kelley, but I’m sure she’d appreciate the gaming time.”

“I know right, how can you have three mates that don’t like Mario Kart?” Rose asked.

“Neither I nor Sam have very much dedication to Mario Kart.” Dahlkemper was quieter around the Omegas, but picked her spot in this instance. 

“Nope” Sam affirmed, grinning at her mate.

“I know, but at least you guys will play every now and then!” Alex occasionally hung out during game nights, but Kelley’s older two mates were older than the Omega captain, and were both much less into the gaming thing.

“Are you gonna bring Alphas to your gaming night?” Lindsey said playfully at Sonnett. 

“No, cause then you’ll beat me at Mario Kart!” Emily said, grinning back.

“I think I’ll come anyway.” Lindsey said, tousling her Omega’s hair.

“Hey!” Sonnett says, still playfully, pulling away from Lindsey.

“How about you guys, do you want to show up to game night?” Sonnet continued.

The Stanford clan immediately started looking at each other for answers.

“Maybe I’ll show up a little bit later,” Sullivan said. “Make like the cool Omegas and read a book. Have a nice evening in”

Campbell tilted her head up in mock thought “Could watch a movie.” 

“Hm” Sullivan said, “like normal people.”

“Hey, we’re normal!” Rose thinks about throwing a string bean at Andi but realizes that in the dining halls the lack of professionalism might not slide with the team staff.

“You’re lucky Allie Long isn’t here Sully” Lindsey said. “She’d kick your entire ass for that”

“Jordy you should come!” Lavelle said.

“Yeah,” Mal said. “It’ll be fun I promise”

Jordy just blushed, still a little uncomfortable being a relative newcomer in a field of strong Alphas and Omegas.

“Oh look you scared her.” Andi says, putting an arm around the young Omega.

“What about you T” 

The eyes that Rose Lavelle was making at Tierna Davidson had her crooning. She was competent at Mario Kart, but was content to keep her distance from the rest of the team, probably retiring with Andi to their room for some more light reading. But Rose’s eyes! They were so cute. The way her smile screamed absolute mischief while her puppy eyes made her want to satisfy the whim. Her goddamned Alpha lost in Rose’s expression.

“Uh... Maybe.” Was all she managed to get out.

Rose looked like she was gonna continue with the begging routine, but Andi noticed the time was clicking closer to 7:30. “Alright guys, let’s get through the the info session, then you can pester us all you want”

“Ooh look at Andi, the responsible one, telling us what to do” Sonnett said, as all of them got up and headed to return their stuff, taking their plates with them.

  
  


  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any additional feedback.


	4. Gamertime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with the Gamerz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Apologies this came out a day late, should be back to updating Sundays for a while.
> 
> A note on Saturday's Kelley thing, with a TL;DR at the end for those who don't want the Discourse. 
> 
> I know I said last week that I would steer clear of the discourse, but the Fandom's reaction to Kelley kneeling on Saturday reminded me of something; we don't actually know our heroes. We inevitably are only privy to a certain part of their lives, and we put them on a pedestal anyway, filling in the gaps we don't see with parts of our own personalities. Fanfiction is one of the avenues some of us use to do this; we ascribe personality traits to people we don't really know. I enjoy, and I encourage you all to enjoy, both mine and other's fanfiction, but lets all be aware that our portrayals of these characters can only be so accurate, and form our evaluations of our heroes based on their actual actions. And honestly, fuck Kelley for kneeling one night and standing on the fourth. It's her right to do so, but that's a terrible look.
> 
> TL;DR Fanfiction is just that; fiction. Even if the characters are "Based on" real people. Don't meet your heroes.
> 
> I apologize for that rant, but I didn't want to ignore the ability of this story (and others like it) to inevitably affect our perceptions of real people, when they shouldn't.
> 
> Anyway, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Enjoy the chapter, and my more woke, fictional, Kelley.

The team meeting went off smoothly. No one had started NWSL preseason yet so everyone was chomping at the bit, looking to play soccer again. Looking at the schedule, Tierna was consistently impressed with how much time Vlatko had devoted to individual improvement. Sure, there were a lot of intrasquad matches in there, but one of the things that had really impressed the young Alpha was how dedicated the coach was to teaching each player what they could do better. They’d put in the set plays closer to the Olympics, but that didn’t mean everyone couldn’t pick up an extra skill or two before the Games, and that seemed to be what Vlatko was focusing on.

After the meeting, Sonnet and Kelley made a big show of inviting everyone to play Mario Kart, mostly for the purpose of inviting Midge and Jordan, making sure the two relative newcomers felt welcome. The National Team didn’t have a lot of mandatory team bonding nights, but you were still expected to show up to most things when you could. However, it was pretty clear that the Gamers were saying that the Mario Kart was fairly optional, relative to most team events.

Tierna, mildly weary after the day of travel, returned to her room to get some reading done, resting up for the action that would commence the next day.

“Hey,” Sullivan said, entering the room just as Tierna was curling up with her book. 

“Hey”

Sully went around the room, touching up on a few things before getting ready to head back out.

“You coming to Gamer Night?”

“Allie Long lives on, apparently.” 

“Heh, yeah, you should come!”

“I don’t know, I think I might stay here, get some reading done.”

“Oh come on, don’t give me that! You never hang out with anybody! Your prerogative, of course, but you’re like…” Sullivan searched for an appropriate analogy “the least interconnected on the USWNT friendship tree”

“Yeah, fair enough, but if you win a World Cup with the gang, you earn the right to skip a bonding night.”

“Fair enough” Andi said. Tierna smelled a whiff of embarrassment on Andi, and realized Andi thought she had overstepped.

“Look Andi, it’s not like I’m not friends with anybody, but most of the people even close to my age are extroverted Omega’s, and I’m on the opposite side of the Punnett square”

“I can hardly remember what a Punnett square is.” Andi said “Look, you’re right, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to hang out with the Omegas, especially when one of them...” Sullivan got a mischievous look in her eye, pausing for dramatic effect. “Is Rose Lavelle”

“You noticed.”

“Now I did”

“Oh fuck you!” Tierna reached behind her for her pillow, smacking Sully. Sully ducked away, laughing.

“Are you mad?” Tierna continued.

“No, not at all. But if you hurt her I’ll kill you.” Sullivan’s scent changes in such a way that doesn’t quite make it seem like banter. The pair look at each other briefly, then Andi moved off of it and said “Come on, she’d love to have you there!” 

“Eh, I don’t know, I really do want to get this reading done.”

“All right, fine. When you do come, it’s in Soran’s room, not Kelley’s.”

“Why are you referring to their room as a ship name? What are you, turning to the Omega side?” 

“Hey,” Andi smiled. “It’s convenient!”

“Oh whatever.”

“See you in a bit!” Andi called as she left the room.

“Oh sure,” Tierna said, returning her attention to her book.

\--

Tierna knocked on the door to Soran’s room.

She had read for an hour, then realized that Andi was right, and that there was no real reason not to hang with the team for a little while.

She mustered up the strength to wrap the door confidently, knowing that the older Alphas would take a smaller knock as a sign of weakness, and although they probably wouldn’t say anything, she knew it mattered to them, at least on a certain level.

“Look who it is!” Andi said as she opened the door. Tierna stepped into the crowded hotel room.

“Tierna!” Kelley says warmly, looking over from the opposite wall

“Baby T!” Lavelle was using the name with a guttural yell, which was both quite weird and also indicative of respect. Davidson felt her alpha flutter but quieted it down, embarrassed.

“What’s up everybody?” Tierna says, making her way into the room. The hotel room was crowded, filled with most of the younger half of the team. Mal, Lindsey, Sonnet and Rose were all playing Mario Kart, while Kelley looked on from behind. Mewis and Abby were snuggled up against each other on one of the beds, while Andi and Jordan observed from the wall next to the door; Jordan almost invisible next to the louder personalities.

“Kelley, I see you’ve picked the Wii version. Good choice.” 

“I mean, it’s the version I played in college, so I never really bothered with a new one.”

“Understandable. It’s the superior version anyway. This is what the pros love” Davidson had forgotten how she picked up the gaming trivia, but her memory was a steel trap for those sorts of things.

“Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard that somewhere. This is just what I have though.”

“Convenient”

“Oh my God guys I’m so bad at this game” Sonnet said, laughing at herself as she activated a Bullet Bill. 

“Guys I got fourth!” Lavelle says, finishing her own race. Tierna’s heart fluttered. She looked around to see if anyone noticed, but everyone was paying attention to Rose’s celebration despite the fact that Lindsey finished first by a decent margin. Mal was...worse than that, finishing down towards the end with Sonnett.

“All right guys, I’m out.” Mal appeared to be done with Mario Kart. “Jordan do you want in?”

Dibiasi looked mildly surprised that she hadn’t melted into the wall, but reluctantly took the remote. 

“Anyone else want in, before I completely embarrass myself?” Sonnett said. Tierna realized that she’s supposed to support Jordan and offered to get involved.

“Sure,” Tierna said, reluctant to take up space, but realizing that she could allow herself this one time.

“T aren’t you really good at this game?” Dibiasi asked.

“Yeah, I know some of the strats” Tierna tried to play it off as her childhood came flooding back to her. The feeling of the controls in her hands, it was like she was 14 again.  _ Back when I had my Alpha.  _ Tierna pushed away the thought, but loved teaching Dibiasi about Mario Kart. “I’d go for a heavyweight character, they’re harder to push around, and they have the best vehicle. Kelley, you haven’t unlocked Funky Kong? B Team.”

“Okay, T” the Omega mocks the Alpha. Tierna begrudgingly chose Donkey Kong instead, realizing it doesn’t really matter. Dibiasi wound up picking a Heavy, picking Rosalina and putting her in the Shooting Star, valuing the aesthetics, Tierna went for the Flame Runner, because are you even playing Mario Kart Wii if you aren’t in the Flame Runner?

The cup started, and it quickly became apparent that Tierna was better than everybody. Tierna hadn’t realized how much this game reminded her of adolescence, and all of her skills quickly came back. She obliterated Jordy and Lavelle, and while Lindsey was at least competent, she was clearly outmatched. Tierna claimed first every race in the first cup.

“Oh, here comes the big boss” Lindsey said, noting Kelley making her way over.

“Jordy, we stan a Stanford Omega, but I’ve got this” the older Omega says, making her way to sit at the screen. 

“You can play for me Jordy.” Lavelle said. “This is not a crowd I can run with.” Lavelle tried to make eye contact with Tierna, but the tall Alpha didn’t notice. Dibiasi didn’t want to overstay her welcome, so she stepped back to Sullivan, who threw an arm over her shoulder.

Older Omega and younger Alpha get ready for each other. “Still can’t believe you couldn’t be bothered to unlock the best character in the game,” Tierna said. “Guess we’re still going with the other Monkey.”

“Hey, now neither of us can use the super-strat” Kelley fired back, picking Waluigi and moving to vehicle select.

“Pick the cup O’Hara” Tierna felt herself building into the banter a little bit.

“Let’s go Special Cup” said Kelley “On 150cc. An actual test of skill. None of that coconut mall 50cc nonsense” Kelley’s trash talk was equal to the task.

Tierna smells something like mischief coming off of Lavelle and turns to realize she’s pouting demonstrably. “Rose, you could also be good if you stopped playing Candy Crush” 

The whole room erupts. 

“OH SHIT!” Sonnett's reaction makes it seem like an earthquake just happened.

“Damn! I didn’t even hear that and I felt the burn.” Dahlkemper says sleepily, still curled around Mewis.

Tierna hadn’t meant to burn Rose so savagely, but when she looked at her, Rose played it off. “Deserved that” she said, laughing. Tierna's Alpha fluttered again. _God Damn it!_ She thought, settling herself once again.

Tierna’s feeling it now. Kelley starts the cup and it is on. Neither of them are in top form, but both feel old muscle memory return to them as they fire up their inner competitors, remembering how good both of them are at Mario Kart. Lindsey beats all the AI, but she looks even poorer compared to the two gamers. Tierna beats Kelley twice, stupidly getting third on the 2nd race, to let Kelly come close enough to win a whole thing if she can beat her on rainbow road. Tierna feels the competitive fire return to her now. The banter aspect, the desire to clown your opponent rather than just beat them, that’s way more emotion than she ever had on the soccer pitch. On the pitch it’s “Do your job.” As a defender, she competed, but she knew how to be a teammate, sportsmanship was a big part of her game there, even combined with her desire to be the best. But here, it was smash the living fuck out of Kelley, and on rainbow road, it was do or die. She loved that feeling, her on her own, getting the job done. Owning it. She was neck and neck, losing to Kelley, but keeping her bike on the tail of Kelley’s as well as she could, into the final turn, and she felt her Alpha build up--

And then she realized she couldn’t do it anymore.

Kelley dropped a banana, and Davidson spun out, losing the race. Horan, who was continually improving, passed her, Tierna came in third again. 

“Thanks for the game guys, I got to go” Davidson went from upbeat to subdued in less than a lap, her internal pain coming back to her. She finished the race before getting up and making her way through the crowd to leave the room.

“Hey, Tierna, do you want a rematch?” Kelley called after the young Alpha, but Tierna had already left the room, leaving the results screen blaring on the TV behind her.

\--

Sonnett and Lindsey helped Kelley put away the Wii. Everyone else had returned to their room after the Kelley-Tierna round, packing it in to allow for adequate rest before camp tomorrow. There wasn’t an official curfew per se, but if you were out and about after a certain time, and the staff caught you, the staff would want a good reason. That typically never happened without a good reason though; that was the culture of the national team; be a professional.

“Thanks for hosting guys,” Kelley said.

“Yeah, of course” 

“Yeah you’re the one who is carrying the stuff around. I’m the one who actually wanted to play the game!” Sonnett says. Kelley laughs softly.

“All right. Time to get back to Alex.”

“Everything okay?” Sonnett notices Kelley’s slight withdrawal at Alex’s name.

“Yeah, it’s just, she’s the most popular of the four of us. I think for her, it often feels like she’s either dealing with Hope, or dealing with the outside world.”

Lindsey’s angry pheromones increased slightly at the mention of the legendary Alpha.

“Smells like your Alpha doesn’t like being upstaged.” Kelley said to Sonnett, making fun of Horan.

Lindsey felt like getting defensive, but instead owned her feelings. “Sorry, she’s just a legend.”

“I know, but she’s also my mate.” Kelley said, smiling at Horan’s relative youth.

“Is your mate being a knothead?” Sonnett said, pressing herself up against Kelley’s side.

“No, it’s just... she’s very protective of Heather, which is understandable, but the thing that makes our relationship strong is that we function like a unit, and I think it sometimes feels like Hope’s Alpha makes all the decisions around a pregnant HAO. She isn’t trying to, but I think it’s tough on Alex. It’s tough on me as well.”

“Hope’s pheromones are turning against you.” Both Sonnett and Horan panic briefly; Sonnett’s inference had come out of Kelley’s statement, but Sonnett could have crossed a line, resulting in a huge insult.

Kelley smelled the terror and laughed it off, and saying “Don’t worry guys, I know you mean well, and that’s a reasonable way of putting it. Hope’s instincts sometimes don’t let her let Alex and I also take care of HAO. And that’s tough on Alex, and she’s more identifiable than I am so she can’t escape that by like, going to the gym. Plus I have you Sonnett” She said.

“Don’t you guys have the bond?” Lindsay asked, brave enough to build into the conversation again.

“Yeah, and that makes communicating easier, but it does mean that Hope’s emotions sometimes grate on Alex’s more directly. It’s something we talk through, but Hope’s a True Alpha, that’s a lot of pheromones.” 

“It can be hard to be in a relationship with 3 other people.” Sonnett said. “Go easy on yourselves”

“I know Sonnett, and I know you know I know it’s worth it. I just think it’s good that Hope is alone with HAO right now, and she and Alex don’t have to keep not stepping on each other.”

“Who would've thought that three Omegas in a relationship with a True Alpha would be difficult?” Horan said, confident enough to jest again.

“It is hard to do it right, but It’s so worth it,” Kelley said. “Anyway, I’m gonna go check on my mate, you two have a good night.”

“G’night” Lindsey said, putting an arm around Sonnett as Kelley left the room

\--

Tierna was really annoyed her rut was coming this early.

Her pre-rut symptoms had started acting up, and it wouldn’t even be a big deal except the unthinkable happened.

The team had been in practice. After a good day of skills training, the team had finished the day with an 11 on 11, and Vlatko had decided to mix up the center-back pairings. Vlatko wanted to see what the Younger Alphas would look like lined up together, so Tierna and Dahlkemper had drilled as a pair that day. They had the starting backline, with Davidson in for Sauerbrunn, lined up against the starting attack, so she and Abby would be spending a good 40 minutes getting attacked by Alex, Tobin, and Pinoe, and they also had Rose and her runs out of midfield to deal with.

For about 30 minutes, the two sides went at each other. The speed of the game was a little slower in training, but this was how Vlatko decided who got to start. The best opponents the USWNT played against on a consistent basis were themselves, and because their pool was so deep, the competition was always fierce.

The ball had been sprayed into the wide area for Tobin, sending it toward the corner flag. Crystal was out wide defending, Tobin, but Tobin got endline and sent the cross in toward the box, and Tierna was tracking back with the near post runner, Rose, positioned in a setup almost exactly like the second US Goal in the 2019 world cup Quarterfinal. But instead of the ball going toward Rapinoe in the 11 position, Tobin’s cross went directly to Rose, playing in the 10 instead of Sam Mewis, who Lavelle had been subbed out for in the France game. Tierna, who was marking Rose, also went to the ball, and in making her tackle managed to poke it away from Rose before she could finish, sliding around Rose’s left shoulder between her and the goal. The tackle took Rose’s legs out from under her, diving right onto Tierna’s stomach. The sort of thing that happened all the time in games; this was practice and T might have let her have it, but she wanted to prove to herself that she could do that sort of thing coming off her ankle injury. It felt good to slide in that manner, she was back, and while she still had to return to match fitness, it was good to know she could make all the plays. It had even come off of Rose’s foot last; she had won possession. Literally a perfect cross defense.

Except now Rose was lying on top of her stomach; her right thigh on Tierna’s groin.

When an Alpha goes into rut, typically about 5 days in advance they’ll be more emotionally charged. It’s a natural response, and it affects different Alphas differently, but normally, Alphas and Omegas know to remain on each other’s good side when they sense a certain scent change. The change is generally proportional to the strength of the Alpha, and it's hard to get a direct read. Tierna had started feeling those symptoms a couple of days into camp, but her standard USWNT physical wasn’t until the next day, so she hadn’t bothered to tell anybody. However, that morning she had made sure to put on her compression shorts, because one of the other symptoms that came on a few days prior to rut was random, spontaneous, arousal. She hadn’t had those feelings yet, but compression shorts were kind of standard fare during game days anyway so it wasn’t like she was gonna skip them during practice, on that day. It wasn't worth teh risk

Even through the shorts, she felt her arousal building against Rose’s thigh, her inner alpha noting the presence of an omegas flesh, and raring to go. The compression shorts minimized it’s visibility; only Rose would be able to notice, but it would have been impossible for the midfielder to miss her arousal build, unless she somehow mistook what it was. 

It appears that did not happen. With a wink, Tierna’s crush acknowledged that she could feel the young Alpha’s arousal, and wordlessly got up and ran out for a goal kick.

_ Fuck. _ Tierna thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna tag the Solo foursome till next week so you guys can discover it. As always, let me know any thoughts you may have on the chapter, my rant at the beginning, or both.


	5. Pheromones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with a hair-pull.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the tardiness of the chapter, I got delayed. Should be back on track this Sunday. Enjoy! Certainly embellished the moment in the summary in this AU, but it felt appropriate and fun.

“Would you mind telling me why your pheremone levels are not even 60% of what they should be at this point in your cycle?” 

Tierna was in the Doctor’s office, talking to Helena Clarkson, a 47 year old omega female that had been with the USWNT since before the Ellis Era. The team doctors were an area that there wasn’t much turnover from coach to coach; when a new coach came in, it was often good to have a sense of continuity down the technical staff, and while they had lost Dawn due to some USSF snafu and Vlatko had brought in some of his people, Dr. Clarkson was still doing her job as a General Practitioner with the USWNT. She was the one of main the three people on staff who knew who on the National Team was going into heat and rut and when, the other was Dr. Phillipa Brown, an Omega OBGYN who was in charge of managing the Omegas’ heat cycles, alongside their new high performance coach.

Dr. Clarkson, however, managed most of the Alphas as they went into rut. Tierna assumed she had been mated when she had taken the job; it already was somewhat of a liability that some unmated Alphas would be treated by an Omega, but this was 2020, people figured it out, and the Alphas were disciplined enough not to try to jump the person in charge of taking care of them.

_ Except for Hope, maybe.  _ Tierna chuckled internally, pushing away the thought. The True Alpha was known for her unabashed classic alpha behavior, and Tierna didn’t really know how a rutting Hope would deal with the medical staff. The possibilities were robust; the scenario that had caused her to chuckle just one of the many hypotheticals. She supposed she could ask somebody, and there might even be a story there, but it wasn’t that relevant.

Tierna blinked herself out of her daydream and addressed Dr. Clarkson. The Omega doctor’s voice was one of concern, but Tierna really didn’t want to hear it. “Does it matter?”

“I mean, otherwise you're perfectly healthy, with the exception of your ankle obviously. we’ll give you a minor suppressant to delay the rut until after the Japan game, but-”

“Then no.” 

“But Tierna-”

“WIll it affect my ability to play?” 

“I mean, it shouldn’t but-” 

“Then no. I appreciate your help though, really.” 

Tierna wanted to leave, but walking out on her Doctor would have been a bad look. She thought about trying to Alpha her way out, but the doctor would probably tell somebody, eventually, and if they found out, that wouldn’t fly with A. The captains or B. the coaching staff. Plus, she didn’t even know how much of an effect she would get. Tierna shuddered, pushing away the thought.

Luckily Dr. Clarkson knew the writing on the wall, and knew that the Alpha was physically fine to perform. The training staff was doing an excellent job on her ankle, she would see some game action against what Vlatko had penciled in as Japan. The pheromone thing, while disturbing, could wait.

“All right, well, keep checking in with the fitness staff, you should be all set, rut-wise”

“Thanks Doc, I appreciate it,” Tierna said sincerely as she left the room

\--

Samantha Mewis always appreciated Abby’s ability to surprise her. Alpha and Omega were longtime mates, but both she and Abby were really good at keeping their relationship fresh, and oftentimes that included some surprising behavior. Even though they could often sense one another’s excitement through their mating bond, the range of surprises was wide enough that the pulse of anticipatation after a recovery day could mean either a nice movie or a new lingerie set. So when Abby had said that they should retire to their room with dinner after the Tuesday training session, Mewis had been happy to accept the invite, knowing that the other Omegas would figure out how to spend their own time for the evening. Obviously they couldn’t do anything super extraneous, because they were in camp, but that didn’t mean that the longtime mates didn’t value their together time. Abby had planned a really nice evening together. All they had had was a team dinner and a rest evening, which was a nice alternative to the film sessions they sometimes had after dinner during camp, but Vlatko knew not to  _ over _ work the national team, so on this particular evening they were given the night off, before two days of pretty intense preparation and then game day. Abby had made a point of bringing their team-approved dinner up to their room, and they were going to watch a couple of episodes of Stranger Things. Was it the most extravagant date? No, but Sam always appreciated Abby doting on her, even during camp. It was a reminder of her unconditional love, something that Sam felt through their bond, learned through Abby’s actions, and reciprocated through her own. 

After Stranger Things was over, the pair sat on the bed, Omega hugging the Alpha. It was unusual for an Omega to be taller than her Alpha, and it was one of the things that Sam knew Abby was most self-conscious about, especially at the beginning of their relationship. When the two had first started courting at UCLA, Abby had been self-conscious about letting Sam hug her. Abby knew that it wasn’t necessarily an “Alpha” behavior to feel that way, and she had full belief in her ability to protect Sam. But that didn’t stop their opponents from occcasionally taunting the small Alpha and larger Omega, and Mewis knew that while she could handle herself, Abby often felt like she was missing something; lacking in her ability to defend her mate, purely on account of the fact that Abby was half of Sam’s size. When Mewis used to hug her, it would only augment those feelings. However, Mewis had eventually convinced Abby that being able to wrap her body around her alpha was her own way of showing her mate love; Omegas loved to tend to their Alphas, and a lot of national team mates had unique ways of showing each other their support, whether that was a certain set of gifts, or hugging them in a certain way, or Tobin continuously drawing Christen’s self-portrait. It took some emotional work from Abby to get over herself, but now she really appreciated how her omega surrounded her, feeling the pheromones come from all sides of her mate. Six years later, and firmly entrenched on the national team, Abby and Sam’s relationship was a known quantity among the fans, the fact that Sam was larger than Abby was a quirk in their relationship appreciated by many a Stan account.

“Thanks for the evening Babe.” Sam said, nuzzling her Alpha’s head as they sat contentedly.

“Yeah, no problem. I figured Stranger Things counted as an alternative to film study.” Abby joked.

“Hey, brains need recovery almost as much as muscles do.” Sam said.

“Especially yours, running around, taking care of all of your friends in addition to just being a soccer player.”

“They’re capable of handling themselves,” Mewis says, smiling into her Alpha as she hugs Abby close. “I could leave the national team and elope with you and they’d be perfectly fine.” Both knew Mewis was never leaving the team at this stage, Abby sensing Mewis’s hypothetical through the bond. “But only cause Lindsey would look after them.”

Abby chuckled a little bit. “I know I say this a lot babe, and I know you know to some extent, but we all think you’re going to be the next Becky. I think even Alex does. You’re a great teammate, and not just to Rose, Mal, and Emily.”

“Thanks babe, but I just try to tell them what I see from them.”

“And that’s why you’re so great at it.” Abby said sincerely. “It makes me really proud to be your Alpha in those moments.”

“Thanks babe.” Mewis gave Abby a kiss on the lips.” I’ll try and find mates for Rose and Mal so I can get back to purely doting on you”

Abby laughed. “Ha! I’d appreciate that, but they’re both lost causes.”

“That may not be as true as you think.” Sam said, a sly smile on her face.

“Oh really?” Sam said, giving her Omega a “tell me” look, but realizing that her Omega was more in gossip mode than anything else.

“Maybe. Sonnett has a theory. We’ll see if it pans out. Nothing concrete yet.”

“Okay.” Abby respected the Omegas’ privacy. She knew Sam would tell her anything really important, and that if Sam said it was nothing worth agonizing over yet, it was nothing worth agonizing over.

The two sat there for a moment, resting in each other’s arms. 

“You ready for bed, baby girl?”

“Yes Alpha” 

The two of them got up; Sam unwrapping herself from around Abby as Abby went to the bathroom first. “You want me to grab some melatonin babe?” Abby said. Dahlkemper used the over-the-counter sleeping drug often, but Sam was better at getting her body to sleep quickly. 

“No, I should be good for tonight. Thanks though.” Mewis said. She got changed, switching her clothes to sleepwear in the bedroom while her alpha got changed in the bathroom. Sam ducked into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and then both of them crawled into the bed, Sam spooning Abby as the pair went to sleep, the mutual drowsiness in their bond assisting the sleeping process.

\--

Mewis woke in the middle of the night. 

_ Fuck.  _ She thought to herself.  _ This is happening way too often. _

Her Omega was throbbing, pulsing, needing something.

_ What the Fuck. _

Sam felt her irritation rise again, knowing her Omega was mad at her but knowing that she was mad at her Omega. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t make it go away, and it kept springing up during random times. 

Case in point.

She was awake, in the middle of the night, less than 72 hours before a match. Annoying, disruptive, but not the end of the world, except this pattern of waking up in the middle of the night kept happening.

Worst of all, she couldn’t tell Abby. She couldn’t even say why she couldn’t tell Abby, but something deep inside of her Omega told her it was a bad idea. So the next morning, as she had on a number of previous mornings, she would fail to tell her Alpha that something was bothering her. It pissed her off to no end, but her own embarrassment over her ability to control her inner self combined with the gut feeling that telling Abby was a bad idea let her continuously table telling her mate. 

She told herself “Continuously tabling” the conversation was what she was doing. In reality, she was lying to her Alpha.

She never really lied directly to Abby. Abby could tell when she was lying easily through their bond, doing so repeatedly would have made it impossible to keep up the charade. The random wake-ups and Omega irritation had been happening since the World Cup ended. Lying to Abby that long would have been impossible. 

However, she did her best to avoid thinking about the irritation, instead choosing to focus on her mate, showering her with the love and affection she deserved, appreciating the mutual affection she got in return. Her Omega was bothering her, but she instead focused on soccer, compartmentalizing her Omega’s irritation.

Her relationship was perfect. She had a mate that she loved, who loved her back, and she got to play soccer with her for both club and country. She could not for the life of her imagine why her Omega kept waking her up like this. She had everything she could ever want.

But yet, here she was. Quietly and resignedly, Mewis slipped her arm out from under Dahlkemper’s. She knew she was radiating annoyance and she didn’t want to wake her Alpha, her Omega not wanting to trouble her protector. She got up, put on a sweatshirt to go with her sleepwear, grabbed one of the room keys from their desk, and slipped out in the hallway.

She had made a habit of sneaking off whenever her Omega got irritated. It wasn’t like she was hiding from Abby, she just wasn’t ready to tell her yet. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself. If she went away after the irritation hit, she could avoid sending enough emotion down their bond to wake her Alpha, and the ambient smells would go away by the time she woke up hours later. It wasn’t a great plan, but it appeared to have worked thus far. She could tell that Abby was sleeping by sense of sleepy peace drifting down their bond.

The normal part of the routine would have been to go kick a soccer ball around until her Omega calmed down, and that had worked pretty well. By exerting herself and reestablishing her connection to the game, she could avoid thinking about her Omega acting strangely. However, in the middle of the night, leaving the hotel alone, especially as an Omega, would not have been the most prudent idea. She knew she could handle herself, but the staff and Abby would get mad at her if they found out, and on some level, she understood why. So instead of footy, she contented herself with a light run on the treadmill in the hotel’s gym.

Running on the treadmill, Mewis, cleared her mind and thought about all the things she was missing in that moment. She thought about being curled up next to Abby, and that turned more of her attention to the sheer drowsiness in her bond, knowing that right now, her alpha was sleeping contentedly, an Alpha worthy of her love. Glad to have finally recentered herself, Mewis hopped off the treadmill after only a few minutes, returning to her room, a little sweaty, but able to return to sleep, curled around her alpha once again.

\--

Tierna Davidson had never been so excited to be on the bench for a national team game before. The rational part of her mind wanted to be out on the field, proving to the team that Becky Sauerbrunn could safely retire and have the center back slot covered, but there was a certain part of her mind that really wanted to watch Rose play, and that was both fun and annoying. It did make the bench experience easier. She normally wanted to get out there, to help her teammates as best she could. She was always cheering them on, trying to exude the energy into her teammates to make the plays she would make. But she always felt lame for not making them herself. That was how it had been at the world cup; 15 players won that cup, and Tierna, on her worst nights, felt like she hadn’t earned the right to be called a world champion. Her entire team would tell her she was wrong, but she felt like she hadn’t earned the right sitting on the bench; she belonged on the field, where she was at Stanford when they won the National title, and where she was with the Red stars. She still hadn’t quite gotten used to watching games with the national team. 

_ Nor Should I _ , Tierna thought to herself, reminding herself that getting used to sitting on the bench is getting into a state of always being ready. But, just for the day, she was content to watch Rose get lined up over the ball for kickoff. As the game started, Tierna noticed that her Alpha kept fluttering every time Lavelle got the ball. She noticed herself gasp a little more every time she took a shot. She even felt her alpha build a little in pride in the first half when Rose cut a ball onto her right foot instead of her left, and was even a little bit mad at Carly Telford, the English goalkeeper, when she saved Rose’s lone shot on target.

However, the most watchworthy time of the game was in the 52nd minute. Off of a corner, Tobin Heath collected the ball and moved to clear with it, dribbling away from Georgia Steinway when Steinway pulled her hair and Tobin fell. Immediately, Tobin got into Steinways face, and Christen came over, looking visibly incensed. Julie Ertz also came over, looking like she wanted to hit Steinway, while Haughton came over from the backline and tried to protect the Young Omega. 

Soccer isn’t a game with a ton of unwritten rules, but pulling on someone’s hair is a big no-no. Frankly the Jamaican referee just missed it, and she should have been carded, but it hadn’t , and Steinway was playing it off like it was fair play. And it wasn’t.

But then she realized where she was.

She had an extremely pissed off fellow omega in Heath, but surrounding her were Julie Ertz, Christen Press, and Steph Haughton, all strong alphas who did not look happy. Intimidating Omegas during soccer games was typically frowned upon, left for chippiness in more major competitions than this pseudo-friendly tournament. But the hair-pull was so unnecessary and uncalled for that the US Alphas were not fucking around. She was even tacitly aware that both benches were standing up, all aware that three Alphas had just crossed their wires. A benches clearing brawl was almost unheard of in soccer, but then again, an Omega had just pulled another Omegas hair 10 yards from the second Omega’s alpha. If this were a bigger tournament, there may have been fireworks. Over at the USA bench, Tierna looked for Rose, trying to make sure she was out of the way. It looked like she was circling in behind Horan, who was putting her body between the Omega and ground zero while still allowing her to see what was going on. Tierna's interest in the brewing squabble let her miss her inner Alpha settle at knowing Lavelle was safe.

“Tobin, are you okay,” Christen said, refusing to stop staring down Steinway. The young Omega looked like she’d rather be anywhere but there, but the English Alphas were mad at their teammate; it had been a reckless move, and they weren’t quite ready to put their bodies in front of Christen yet. If Christen moved in Steinways direction, that would change, but Haughton’s disbelief of the young Omega’s stupidity let her stray closer then normal to throwing an Omega under the bus. She wouldn’t let it happen, but for that moment, she wanted to.

“Yup” Tobin said, feeling her mate’s anger thundering down their bond. The pheromones in the air were all tense, the Beta referee observing the pair from behind the crowd able to smell the anger on basically everybody, but especially from Ertz and Haughton. Press was trying to keep a level head. Haughton had managed to project her anger onto Press, moving it from Steinway to an Alpha that looked like a threat to her teammate.

“Don’t do it again” Press growled to Steinway, and then promptly ran upfield. Tobin, still irritated by the whole thing, just said to the ref, “Next time, card her” and ran to her position on the right wing. Ertz and Houghton looked at each other before mutually backing off, and Steinway just stood their, terrified, and almost in shock that she had made it out alive.

Over on the sideline, the two benches headed back to their respective seats. “Holy shit” Sullivan said to Davidson. “And I thought I had control”

“I would have decked Steinway on principle” Davidson replied, in awe of the older alpha. Andi grunted assent. Suddenly, the two Stanford roommates heard the crowd erupt, realizing that could only mean that they had scored, and they turned around to discover that Press had her arms in the air. The USA bench got up again, coming to the touch line to applaud their Alpha scoring a goal.

  
“ _ That _ is Alpha behavior” Said Sully, laughing. Tierna laughed alongside, also in awe, but a little forlorn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feedback very much appreciated! If you have content requests for things you want to see happen with characters, I can try to fit them in. For example, things like "Alyssa and Becky go to a movie" can probably be the backdrop of future plot point, even if I may not dedicate as much time to it as I would in a standalone fic.


	6. Random Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with the coaching GOAT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some mild harassment in here. Just by typing that I've over-advertised it. It's not much of anything but be warned. I've attached a warning closer to the event as there are like four scenes before that one. I think it's super mild, but I don't trust my own perspective on this. There's a summary in the end notes.

“You go in, I’m gonna sign a couple more” 

“All right, don’t miss the bus.” And Sullivan replies to Tierna Davidson.

“Heh” Tierna releases what happiness she can as she remembers an oral history of Allie Long once holding up the team bus when signing fan autographs. The way the security team typically handled after-game procedures meant that it was unlikely that the story had played out as it was told by the younger team members, but the gaming Omega midfielder was always embarrassed whenever Alex mentioned it, so there had to have been something there.

Still, Tierna could stay out alone and sign a couple more autographs. It was one of her vices with the NT, and she had felt bad about the Omega in the airport, feeling responsible even though her teammates would’ve told her it wasn’t her fault. She wanted to make up for that. She had an opportunity to spread joy through fan interactions, and it was one of the non-soccer things that had her feeling the most normal. Well, soccer adjacent, but she didn’t care.

However, holding up the bus wasn’t a good look with her teammates. She’d sign a couple more and then go get changed before the starters came out of the showers.

After an autograph and a couple of pictures, Tierna went back into the tunnel, headed for the USA locker room. 

Halfway down the tunnel she received a surprise.

“Dawn!” Tierna exclaimed, happy to see the former fitness coach. She was a legend among the players, and, within all relevant team personnel, she got as much credit for winning the World Cup as any individual player did. Any mildly inebriated USWNT player around or above 100 caps would have told you that Dawn Scott was more essential to the 2019 world cup run then Jill Ellis was, full stop. And while Tierna didn’t necessarily agree with that sentiment, no one disputed how good the fitness coach was at her job. It was highly unfortunate when U.S. soccer hadn’t kept her around, letting her go to England after Vlatko entered the picture.

“Hey Tierna!” Dawn had been on the field for the pregame, but Tierna had been doing other things and had settled for a nod from distance.

“Hey, good to see you. I’ve got to run; I’m already behind. What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you actually” 

“What’s up?” Tierna tried to cover up her fear, both on Alpha instinct and as an excuse to get away from Dawn.

Tierna’s fears were confirmed when Dawn said “I spoke to Dr. Clarkson.”

Tierna inwardly groaned, all her previous joy vanishing. “Dawn, you know how much I appreciate you, you know how much we all love you, but I’m telling you, it’s none of your business.”

“Tierna, your levels shouldn’t be this low for this long. Your process hasn’t happened in a while, and now that it is happening, your levels are nowhere near where they should be.”

“What, HIPAA doesn’t apply to former employees we like?” Tierna regretted that comment almost as soon as she had said it. It was low, it was mean. Dawn was still welcome in the USWNT camp, and Tierna knew the Beta coach had good intentions. She just really wanted her to go away, and her composure had slipped in that moment. “Sorry Dawn, that was low”

“I understand.” Dawn smiled sympathetically. She knew Tierna respected her, she was just frustrated with what was bothering her. “Dr. Clarkson’s just concerned, and he discussed it with me professionally, I can assure you. He just wanted to make sure you were all right. It doesn’t appear that you are.

“Dawn, I’m asking you to please drop it.”

“Tierna, I excused your low levels during the World Cup because I thought exposure to people like Christen and Carli and Julie and even Crystal were causing your Alpha to show some strong submissive effects.”

“Dawn-” Tierna warned. Tierna didn’t get offended often. Even the Omega in the airport hadn’t offended her so much as wounded her. Dawn, for all of her genuine care, had just crossed a line Tierna didn’t even know she had

“I’m sorry for even insinuating that, but that’s what it felt like. I let it go because your levels are so low and it’s so rare for that to happen. Then you got injured and then I left, and the problem has continued, and even gotten worse. I’m concerned. I should have known better, the science didn’t check out.”

Tierna looked up at that, looking into her eyes, Tierna could smell the genuine concern coming off of the Beta coach. Tierna realized that Dawn had fucked up. She often said that more sports science research was needed with female athletes, both Alphas and Omegas, and she realized that Dawn felt responsible for Tierna’s predicament, having made an assumption that she shouldn’t have. Dawn felt if she had asked Tierna about it during the World Cup, she could have addressed it while Tierna’s health was still her responsibility. Tierna knew that was not the case though, and tried to let her know that.

“Look Dawn, pheromones don’t really affect performance, it's not your responsibility, don’t worry about it.” 

“I know, but your mental state affects performance, and pheromones definitely affect that. You can’t coach this team and not care about every player who’s ever played for you.”

“I appreciate that, but trust me, you can’t help me with this.” Tierna admitted that something was bothering her somewhat officially now, and mildly regretted it, but realized she owed Dawn that much. It wasn’t like she didn’t know.

“OK.” Dawn backed off, having said her piece. “There’s thirty women in that locker room who’ll go to bat for you, no matter what.” 

Tierna looked at Dawn. “I know.” She said with a sigh. “Thanks”

“You’re welcome. Go catch your bus.”

\--

Lindsey really hoped her Omega wasn’t getting depressed.

Emily had basically refused to stop hugging her all SheBelieves, and today was no exception. They were on the team charter to Houston for the Japan match, and Sonnett had spent the entire time nuzzled up into Lindsey.

Lindsey was really sad that her Omega was leaving, but she had tried to make like the macho Alpha when they were finishing up the moving process. Linsdsey had flown out with Sonnett to Orlando about two weeks prior to SheBelieves camp. Lindsey had wanted to see her new place, (and, to a lesser extent, meet Sonny’s roommates) and Sonnett had not wanted to leave her Alpha for the few days she had taken to get moved in. It was nice. Lindsey had gotten to meet Alanna Kennedy for the first time, the Australian Omega happy to room with the USWNT defender. The three of them had had a nice couple of days together, checking out the good eateries and coffee shops in and around Sonnett’s new place. It was easier for Lindsey to leave knowing that Sonnett knew where to go for all of the necessities. Back in Portland, they had explored the city together, finding a favorite coffee place, finding a mutual restaurant for cheat day, and even finding a laser tag place that the four housemates liked to frequent on rest days. Lindsey sighed, unhappy that her house was breaking up; She had been one of the 2 Alphas in a 4 teammate dormitory, now it was just her. She was even downsizing before the season started, moving into a smaller one-bedroom apartment now that Sonnett was gone. It was a new team, almost; Mark Parsons was engaging in a ton of overhaul, and while Lindsey knew that she’d be at the center of it, she was still a little apprehensive at the unfamiliarity of it all.

But she couldn’t focus on that. Her Omega needed her to be strong, to exude the confidence that everything was going to be okay.

“Sonny, I’m gonna pee,” Lindsey said, nudging Sonnett away from her shoulder as she got up to use the plane’s restroom.

There it was again. Sonnett wouldn’t tell her, but she could feel her Omega lurch as Lindsey left, the scent of fear permeating the air in their seats as she headed towards the front of the plane.

Lindsey was sad for herself that she wouldn’t be around her Omega anymore, but she was terrified of what would happen to Sonnett when she left. 

“Don’t be nervous, Lindsey.”

There wasn’t necessarily a hierarchy of who got to sit where on USWNT flights, but typically, the older you were, the more likely you were to have torn an ACL. As a result, most of the veterans wanted to have the extra legroom in first class so their knees could breathe a little bit. So when Lindsey turned and found Ali Krieger giving her the side eye, she wasn’t that surprised. Ashlyn was in the window seat, trying to take a nap.

“Her Omega gets nervous when you’re nervous.” Krieger wasn’t the loudest member of the USWNT, so Lindsey figured she must actually smell like she was nervous. Bad look for the Alpha with the older Alphas; she was glad Ashlyn looked like she was asleep. 

“Sorry,” Lindsey said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been separated like we’re about to be.” 

“Which is why you guys took the trade, right?” Krieger got straight to the point, damn.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Trust yourself. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it.” Krieger said to Lindsey. “Plus, It gets easier after you’ve done it once. April will be much easier than today.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“I’ll make sure she's all right, Lindsey, don’t worry about it. Just cause you’re gone doesn’t mean she’ll be alone.”

“Thanks, Ali, that means a lot."

“No problem”

\--

The Tuesday before the Japan match, Rose Lavelle was in the buffet line, getting breakfast before training that day.

“Hey Rose!” Sonnett came bouncing up to her fellow Omega.

“Hey Sonnett,” fellow Omega was happy that Sonnett was up and about, trying to energize her. She couldn’t really match it though, turning to grab the oatmeal that would energize the team for the day.

“You ready for traaaining?” Sonnett started squatting repeatedly behind Lavelle, pseudo-twerking as she danced around the other Omega.

“Yes, I’m ready Sonnett” Rose said, letting her frustration leave her.

Sonnett smelled the Omega’s frustration and backed off. “Sorry Rose,” she said, putting her arms around her friend. “Sorry”

“You’re good Sonnett” Rose said. Appreciating her friend, nuzzling into the fellow Omega’s neck.

Sonnett’s keen nose smelled something else, “Something bothering you Rose?”

Rose gave thanks to her Omega. If she was a Beta her friend wouldn’t have noted her mild distress, but her Omega’s subtle scent tipped her Omega teammate off. Now that it was in the open, she could let her teammate know about it. “Yeah’ She said. “I’ll tell you when Sam gets here.”

“Hey!” Sonnet shoved Rose, upset that Rose wouldn’t tell her while realizing that this was Rose’s MO.

“Well, Sam is Mom.” 

“Yeah, Sam is Mom.” Sonnett affirmed. The two of them broke down into a fit of giggling, appreciating that the tall Omega was the protector and wisdom of their friend group. 

The two of them sat down, eating and chatting for a while.

Eventually Sam made her way into the breakfast area and joined the pair.

“What’s up gang?” Mewis said, all business as she immediately started into her oatmeal. 

“Not much,” Rose said smoothly. Sonnett stayed silent, noting Sam’s focused demeanor.

“Everything okay Sam?” Sonnett asked. It was always good to make sure a team Mom was in a decent mood before bothering her with one’s shenanigans.

“Yeah,” Sam shrugged. “I’m not worrying about it. What’s up with you guys?. Sonnett you smell like you want to tell me something.”

“Rose has a thing.” Sonnett did not miss her window.

“Gee thanks.” Rose says, rolling her eyes. “Sam smells and acts like something is bothering her and you immediately tell her about my thing; way to go Sonnett” 

Mewis smiles, amused at the friendly banter between the two younger Omegas. “It’s alright Rose. I’d much rather deal with your thing than think about my thing.” 

Rose feels the larger Omega’s warmth rolling off of Sam, and starts squirming a little, embarrassed. 

“I don’t know, my Omega’s acting weird.” She says, feeling like her emotions were quiet enough relative to the rest of what was going on that they weren’t worth lamenting about.

Sonnett starts cracking up, but Mewis continues exerting her warmth. The younger Omega did not have as much experience as she had; having already taken a mate, she was aware of a plethora of Omega sensations, and they were all natural. If Rose was experiencing a new one she might be able to help her identify what it was.

“Weird how?

“I don’t know? I feel like, weirdly horny? But I know I’m not in heat? It’s weird.” Rose said.

“Have you fucked Andi?” Sonnett jibed.

“Sonnett,” Mewis said, annoyed but mildly amused with Sonnet’s directness.

“No, I haven’t.” Rose said. “It’s weird. I have like, no desire to go to her at all. The thought physically makes me sick a little bit.”

Mewis thought for a moment, running through scenarios in her head before she arrived at the first one that makes logical sense. “Rose, are you crushing on anyone?”

“Maybe,” Rose says, smiling as her embarrassment comes off in waves. 

Mewis puts a hand on Sonnett’s arm to avoid Sonnett distracting Rose by drilling her about whom her crush was. She could also smell Rose’s bluff a mile away, but that wasn’t helpful right now.

“Rose, if I had to guess, the Alpha you’re crushing on is going into rut. Your Omega wants to take care of the rut for your Alpha, which is why you’re feeling Horny, but your Omega isn’t actually feeling anything for Andi because it doesn’t actually need anything, your Alpha does.” 

Rose then thought about the incident when she dove on Tierna a week ago and felt very stupid.

“Oh.” She said, and then promptly got up and went to go get ready for practice.

Mewis just watched Rose leave, weirded out, but Sonnett looked like she was smiling.

“Does that follow with your theory?” Sam asked

“Yup.” Sonnett said, a wolfish grin on her face.

\--

(On Whatsapp)

Rose: Is baby T in rut?

Andi: Oh.

Andi: Probably, not 100% sure

Rose: But she’s been acting like it?

Andi: A lot of mildly erratic behavior that I had previously written off gets explained with that theory.

Rose: Can I help her out?

Andi: You asking for my permission, my room key, or for me to ask her that?

Rose: Well, not the third one. More the second one than the first one.

Andi: You know you don’t need the first one.

Rose: I mean yeah, but I didn’t want to leave you out of the loop.

Andi: Thanks, I appreciate it. You want to do it on Bang Day?

Rose: What’s Bang Day?

Andi: How the hell do you not know what bang day is?

Rose: I’m fully aware of how every mated pair who doesn’t doesn’t live together gets it on in the same hotel right before we break camp, thanks very much.

Andi: Haha. OK, you win. You are no longer an innocent child.

Rose: Damn right. Even Mal knows what Bang Day is.

Andi: *cringes* I suppose children must grow up eventually.

\--

When friends asked Tierna Davidson what her favorite USWNT camp memory was, “frantically masturbating in a hotel room on recovery day” was not likely to come to the top of her mind.

Just another example of how weirdly mundane professional sports could be.

It wasn’t as good as the real thing, but her rut erection was getting to the point where it was painful. She hadn’t even procured a bottle of lube, which, in hindsight, was a major mistake. Tierna had asked Andi if she could have had the room for “Bang Day” because the Wednesday after she believes had been when her suppressant regimen had been supposed to wear off. She had been prepared to shut Andi down if she asked who she was bedding, but to her surprise Andi hadn’t cared, just shrugged, and got herself packed, and told her when she’d pick her stuff up so Tierna could be done by then.

So here she was, pleasuring herself to get through her rut, knowing that if she could get herself off a few times, her Alpha may be calm enough to get her through the airport tomorrow. 

Keyword “may”.

Tierna really wished she had a partner in spots like this. Sure, if she went at it for a few hours with an Omega, it wasn’t guaranteed her rut would be over by the next day, but she would be able to control herself unless faced with, like, a true Omega in heat.

But no, she had to handle herself. 

Tierna held images in her mind of some hot porn star Omegas as she stimulated herself, trying to build her knot. It wasn’t happening, but she kept seeing red, starting to stroke herself faster and faster up and down her long shaft.

 _Fuck, should have brought lube_ Tierna thought to herself, sighing, as her hand started getting redder. If she had to do this for three hours, she might have had to bandage it for tomorrow. Try to explain that one to Naeher on the plane. It’d be like explaining her porn collection to her mom.

(Dub-Con Gray Area Ahead.)

Just then she heard a knock on the door.

Tierna quickly tried to get herself in order, pulling her spandex shorts up over her erection, wincing as she tried to deal with the awkward positioning. Pulling her outer shorts up to get herself dressed, Tierna got off the bed. “Come in Andi” she said, mildly annoyed that the midfielder had left something but knowing that she wouldn’t have bothered her if it wasn’t really important.

When the door opened and Rose stepped in, she could hardly hide her surprise, or her lust.

Despite being dressed, Tierna felt like Rose could see every inch of her. She was painfully aware of how her pheromones had flooded the room, and she could hardly smell Rose over her own arousal and exertion. She noted a decent amount of what had to have been lust in her scent, which was weird. Maybe she needed Andi?

“Andi’s not here Rose,” Tierna said. “What do you guys need bang day for, anyway?” She was trying to make a joke, and she felt like she succeeded, but she couldn’t tell because of how much she wanted to pin Rose up against the wall.

“I’m not here for Andi,” Rose said. Tierna audibly moaned. If it were possible, her erection started getting harder. She was sure that she was tenting even her spandex now, but it hardly mattered. Rose could tell how aroused she was and Tierna could hardly think about it.

“Is something bothering you, Alpha?” Rose said sultrily. The small part of Tierna’s mind that wasn’t in haze was impressed with Rose’s dirty talk voice. She could have practiced it with Andi, but even then, she was impressed. 

Tierna moaned in response, her young, throbbing Alpha begging her to give into the Omega who wanted to serve her. “Oh Rose,” she said.

“My Omega has been bothering me all week, building me up to help solve your problem,” Rose said, crawling onto the bed, and giving Tierna a kiss.

The part of Tierna’s mind that remained rational lept to the foreground. “No Rose.” She said, her mind still hazy.

Lavelle continued pressing kisses into the side of the Alpha's neck, her Omega was more comfortable than she had been when first doing this with Andi. “It’s okay.” She said, “I want to,” she said, reaching down to massage the Alpha's swelling groin.

“No,” Tierna said again. “Rose, stop.”

Rose was wondering why Tierna wasn’t getting the picture. “Tierna, it’s really fine, I can help you, I don’t-

“ROSE.” With her last bit of mental fortitude, Tierna grabbed Lavelle’s wrist as it met her groin, dragging it off her.

Rose was stunned. Everything she was smelling made it pretty clear that the Alpha wanted to bed her. She was in rut, sure, but she could smell Tierna’s lust for Rose the moment she walked into the room. Why didn’t T want to sleep with her? 

Then something else came in. She realized that she had tried to continue after Tierna had said no, multiple times. Taking advantage of an Omega in heat was pretty common and highly frowned upon, especially by the NT, but something that's also talked about was that you shouldn’t take advantage of an Alpha in rut. It wasn’t nearly as common, and Rose hadn’t ever thought it would come up, but it was pretty clear that Tierna did not want her, at least not then.

“Sorry T,” Rose said, withdrawing.

“No, it’s ok.” Tierna said, longing for Rose to stay there but knowing she couldn’t let her.

“No, it's not,” Rose said, upset with herself after what she had almost done. She straightened her shirt as she got up, meaning to leave the room.

Tierna still was in rut-brain, but she had to tell Rose a few things. “No, Rose, you’re so fine. Your instincts were spot on. I just…” Tierna searched for the right reason she can’t take Rose then and there, and realized that there were very few, none of which would make Rose understand. “I want to take care of myself.”

That was both untrue and the lamest thing an alpha in rut had probably ever said to an Omega who was throwing herself at her. but Rose was amenable. “It’s OK,” Rose said to Tierna. With an impish grin, she added “I’ll be in my room if you change your mind.”

Tierna smiled. “Maybe” She said, truthfully.

Rose ducked out the door.

In her room, Tierna thought about what she had just passed up. 

_I don’t_ technically _have to be her mate if I give in_. Every instinct in her wounded Alpha wanted to go get Rose; to claim her, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t commit to a relationship, or she would risk hurting Rose. She couldn’t tell her about her past.

But, on the other hand, I’m really fucking horny. After her haze was briefly cleared, Tierna’s alpha reminded her of just how horny she was. She looked at her dick, then herhand, and tried to imagine spending the next four hours jacking off. She really didn’t want to imagine that.

  
 _Ahh, what the fuck. It’s one night._ Tierna thought. She looked up Rose’s room number on her phone and she left her room, raring to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ?con summary: Rose propositioned Tierna. Tierna said no. It took Rose a second to get the memo, but she realized she messed up.
> 
> I don't know if I understated that sequence in the beginning notes, overstated it, or got the assessment about correct, but there it is.
> 
> In other news, if anyone has any plausible Thorns international player signings that may have happened if not for the pandemic, LMK and I'll put them into the cannon. I love worldbuilding, but it's not a significant enough part of the story to warrant the research.


	7. Bang Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with the smut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's some smut in here but there's still a bunch of plot. Sorry I disappeared for a while, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. 
> 
> There's some light BDSM in here but no CNC.

Rose Lavelle was sitting in her room, playing Candy Crush on her phone with one hand while using the other to rub her boobs lightly, dealing with her latent horniness, when she heard a knock.

Lavelle popped off her bed, skipping to the door, opening it and expecting to find Sonnett pulling some shenanigans again. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw Tierna’s taller frame.

I mmediately, Rose felt her Omega’s horniness spike and she could smell Tierna’s arousal. The Alpha was breathing heavily and her forehead was shiny with a bead of sweat.

“You sure?” Rose said. She really hoped Tierna said yes because while she would have had to stop herself otherwise from jumping on her otherwise, she wasn’t sure she was physically capable of it. 

“Fuck yeah I’m sure.” Tierna said.

Rose would smell Tierna’s confidence and trusted that the Alpha had changed her mind wilfully. 

“Okay.” Rose giggled, laughing and stripping off her shirt.

\--

Lindsey came back to her and Sonnett’s hotel room, having finished with recovery. Sonnett hadn’t played in the Japan game, so she was already back, her routine shorter.

“Hello Sonnett,” She said seductively.

“Hel-LO” Sonnet said excitedly, kneeling on the hotel queenset in just a gray shirt and what Lindsey assumed were her standard neutral colored panties.

“You ready?” 

“Yup!”

“K” Lindsey said, completely confident in her situation.

“Should I change, Alpha?” Sonnet said, wondering what Lindsey wanted from her.

“No. I’ve got you tonight.” Lindsey said. 

“Oooh!” Emily said, brimming with anticipation. Lindsey brought her own suitcase into the bathroom with her, which only got the wheels turning more rapidly in Sonnet's mind. She could hardly keep her hands off of herself as she patiently waited for her Alpha to return. 

Lindsey came out of the bathroom a moment later in a simple black romper, but that wasn't what Sonnett noticed most. She also toted along a couple of pairs of what looked like black handcuffs.

“Ooh?” Sonnet said. “Have I been naughty?” Bondage wasn’t a thing they did a ton of, and strangely enough, Lindsey was less into it than Sonnett was. Sonnett was wondering how her Alpha wanted to play this.

“ _ I’m  _ in control” Horan replied, the non-answer being bringing Sonnett even more excitement. 

“Yes Alpha” Sonnett deferred. She lay back on the bed and allowed Linsdsey to climb over her, smelling her Alpha’s arousal combine with her own. 

“Do you remember your safeword?” 

“Pickles” Sonnett giggled. It was dumb. A weird part of the Alpha/Omega culture was the largely stupid idea among them that safewords were a Beta thing. Really headstrong Alphas and Omegas said that they could tell when their mates were uncomfortable from their strong understanding of Omega’s scents, and Sonnett trusted Lindsey to be able to understand her. It was one of the things that Sonnett loved most about her, how safe she felt when she was with her. Lindsey insisted on her having a safeword though, and in retrospect, that insistence was part of why Emily felt so safe. However, the first time they had tried this, Sonnett had come up with the dumbest word she could think of. Hence, pickles. She imagined posting that a caption referencing how dumb that in istelf was to twitter, in the context of BDSM, and that in and of itself caused her to giggle to herself again.

“Do you find me funny, Omega” 

“No, Alpha” Sonnett said quickly, excited that Lindsey was exerting some dominance.

Lindsey scented her Omega as subtly as she could as Sonnett said that, gauging Sonnet’s reaction. She had wanted to surprise her with this for Bang Day, but while Sonnett was more into this than she was, she wanted to make sure she was comfortable. When she reacted with arousal instead of fear the first time Lindsey really got into it, the Alpha midfielder knew she was good to continue.

“Good.” Lindsey said. “Take your shirt off,” Sonnett complied instantly, and Lindsey tossed the unneeded garment aside before moving to grab Sonnett’s right arm. Firmly cuffing it to the bedpost, she tested it to make sure she was comfortable and moved to Sonnett’s left hand. After double checking to make sure her Omega wouldn’t lose circulation, Lindsey started running her hands over her Omega’s abs, admiring the young defender’s body.

“So beautiful,” Lindsey said, admiring the defender’s fitness. “Did you have a good camp”

“I think I did okay, Alpha. I could always do better.” 

Lindsey knew she was supposed to grill Sonnet here, but she went easy. “Hmm. I suppose your performance was acceptable.”

“Thank you Alpha” 

Lindsey wanted to take Sonnett right then and there, but knew Sonnett loved to have this part dragged out. She started showering her Omega’s stomach with kisses, eventually working her way up towards nudging her sports bra away from Emily’s small, perky chest. Lightly flicking at her nipples, she felt Emily moan as she started to pull away. 

“Patience” she said, almost scoldingly. “There is a time and a place for everything.” Horan was mostly just making it up as she went along, but she found herself building into her role a little bit, buying into the commanding dom attitude. She started licking at Emily’s inner thighs, approaching but never quite reaching her core as she decorated Emily’s legs with her tongue.

“Ooh. Alpha.” Emily moaned, wanting more out of Lindsey but unable to get it. Lindsey held Emily’s legs down with her arms.

“Silence.” Lindsay said, looking up from between Sonnett’s legs.

Sonnet just nodded.

Lindsey’s hands held Sonnett’s legs down, preventing Sonnett from bucking up against Lindsey as she continued to lap at Emily’s folds. Sonnett moaned once, but Lindsey immediately stopped what she was doing, so Sonnett quickly figured out that that wasn’t the best idea. Lindsey continued running her tongue in and out of the Omega’s core, choosing to ignore the light squeaks Sonnet made in her vain attempt to stop herself from making noise. 

Eventually, Emily could feel herself approaching her edge. “Alpha,” she tried to say. 

“Shhh” Lindsey said quickly, stopping what she was doing to talk to the Omega. Sonnet got the memo. 

2 minutes later, Sonnett felt her whole body tense up as Lindsey ran her tongue repeatedly over her Omega’s clit, and Sonnet came against her Alpha’s face. Lindsey lapped at her juices, sucking her dry as she used her tongue to help Sonnett ride out the high.

“Ngh, thank you Alpha.” Emily said, sighing against the bed. 

“We are not finished.” Lindsey said, commanding the room again.

“Ope” Sonnett said, shutting up.

Lindsey scented Emily again, reassuring herself that Sonnett was still in the mood before stripping her black thong out from under her romper. She climbed on top of Sonnett, positioning herself between her Omega’s legs before nuzzling at Sonnet’s opening with what was already a very hard dick.

She could feel Sonnett’s moans of pleasure as she teased deeper and deeper, feeling her knot starting to build. Holding Sonnett’s chest with her hands, she lightly rubbed the Omega’s nipples with her thumbs, trying to build her up again before her knot started to form.

Lindsey worked herself into a steady rhythm, lightly rubbing Sonnet’s clit while she thrusted. Sonnett tried bucking up against Lindsey, but Lindsey used her thighs to hold her Omega down, taking Sonnet’s control away from her. Lindsey allowed herself to moan as she thrusted deeper into Sonnett, changing her angle slightly with each thrust for maximum stimulation.

After a few minutes, Lindsey couldn’t stop herself from moaning as she felt her orgasm approach. Sonnett allowed herself to moan more consistently as well, letting Lindsey know how close she was to her own orgasm. 

Lindsey let out a huge sigh as she came. The feeling of her Alpha coming due to her own stimulation was enough to send Sonnett over the edge, the two both moaning as they hit their peaks, both implicitly aware that they were still in a hotel, so not going totally wild.

After successfully coming along with her Omega, Horan crashed on top of Sonnett while waiting for her knot to deflate, tired. She had just gone two rounds, and she was supposed to be recovering. Her body could give her more, but after realizing it didn’t need to, all Lindsey wanted to do was sleep. 

“Thank you Alpha,” Sonnett said warmly, quietly whispering into her partner’s ear as they laid together. 

“You’re welcome,” Lindsey said, confirming her breaking character while she nipped at Sonny’s neck. “I wanted to do something special for our first real bang day.” Most of the time, they played it by ear when they actually wanted to be intimate; they both logged major minutes for their club team, so even though they enjoyed their together time, their bodies and fitness routines meant that sex was pretty rare and pretty spontaneous, dependent on their feelings. But they had both sadly come to the realization that Bang Day was a part of their camp routine now. It took some of the mood out of the moment and Lindsey noted her knot finishing it’s deflation, taking the opportunity to roll off of her mate, before noticing how awkward it was to lie in bed with someone when said someone is handcuffed to said bed.

“Oh.” Lindsey said, head under Sonnett’s arm.

The two of them giggled for a moment, Sonnet still unable to move, as Lindsey unlatched Sonnet’s wrists from the bedposts. 

“Your wrists okay?” Lindsey asked, always aware of the health of her Omega. 

“Yeah.” Sonnett said, stretching them out. “Little sore. They’ll be fine.” 

“Good,” Lindsey said, giving her Omega a kiss. 

“Really meant a lot, you taking control like that” Sonnett said. It was one of the things she really enjoyed from her partner, to be dominated, to have someone else making the decisions for her. It made her feel really safe, somehow.

“Of course” Lindsey said. “Even when you’re across the country, I’ve got you. Always.” 

“Hmm.” Sonnett mumbled warmly. The thought made her really happy. “I’ll miss you though.”

“I know baby.” Lindsey said. “I know.”

\--

Alyssa rolled off of Becky, flanks heaving after an orgasm.

“That was amazing,” Becky said, grinning. “Thanks for doing all the work” 

“You know I don’t mind.” Alyssa said. Becky was looking up at the ceiling as she sighed, but she could sense Alyssa’s pride both on her scent and through their bond.

After a few moments of them contentedly sharing their afterglow, Becky notices Alyssa’s horniness creeping into their bond again. “Sorry I can’t go another round babe”

“It's recovery day, don’t worry about it” Alyssa said, dismissively.

“You sure?” Becky asked.

“Being here with you is all of the attention I need.” Alyssa said truthfully. 

Still, Becky was a little discontent to not be able to please her Alpha, although she knew her body was too tired to. The thought brought her attention to somewhere it rarely went during USWNT camp, but here it was. “Let’s have kids”

Alyssa was surprised at Becky’s sudden remark “Right now?”

“After the Olympics” Becky specified quickly. “I know we’ve discussed it, and I know we’d talk about it after we retired, but there’s no reason we can’t stagger our retirements. You can keep being the starting keeper while I give way to the young guns. Just an idea. ”

Becky wasn’t sure what to expect; it was kind of a bombshell, but all of a sudden a large pang of fear lanced painfully through her mating mark.

“Wait, what’s the problem.”

“Nothing.” Alyssa said quickly; too quickly.

“Lys.” 

“Trust me, it’s nothing” Becky did not need their bond to know when her mate was lying to her.

“Alyssa, I really don’t want to have to play the mate card” Becky said slowly, turning to face her mate.

“I shouldn’t be putting you in the position to need to.” Naeher said. Lying in bed together had turned into a serious conversation.

Becky was confused. “But you are?” 

“But I am.” Alyssa confirmed grimly. “And it doesn't matter to you. Not as my mate. Not right now.”

“But clearly something is bothering you!” Sauerbrunn wasn’t quite raising her voice., but she lost some composure as her mate obscured information from her.

“Yeah.” Alyssa said. “I just” She paused, searching. “I can’t tell you about it.” 

Becky knew Alyssa was entitled to her privacy, but also knew as mates, there was precious little information that wasn’t best shared. “I find that hard to believe.” When Naeher’s pain flashed again, she admittedly regretted saying that. “That didn’t come out right, I’m sorry.. I just… I have a hard time knowing something is bothering you that much and you not feeling comfortable sharing what it is.”

Becky could feel Alyssa’s pain now, in a different way. She was truly, genuinely uncomfortable.

“I probably should tell you, but it’s not about me.” Alyssa said. “I can’t say more than that.”

“Is it about us having kids?” Becky asked.

“Maybe? I’m not even sure.”

“Well if it is then we need to talk about it.” Becky said, not accusingly.

Becky could sense Alyssa’s distress. “I know, and I want kids.” 

“There’s a “but” in there” Becky stated. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah” After a moment, Naeher continues. “Look, does this conversation fundamentally change if we have it in September?”

Becky felt the question was out of left field, but respected it.“I guess not” Becky sighed.

“Then let’s talk about it in September, or November. And you can play all the mate cards you want babe.”

“Alright.” Becky wasn’t really satisfied with the turn of events, but any realistic family planning wouldn’t happen until after the Olympics, and then there was a club season that they theoretically needed to return to. Plus, she trusted Alyssa. “You ready to sleep?”

“Yeah” Naeher said, curling up next to her omega.

“It bothers me that you won’t tell me what’s bothering you.”

“You’re going to be so mad I didn’t when you find out.”

“Then why won’t you tell me now?” 

“I’m hoping you’ll understand that too.”

\--

Tierna woke up from her snooze, terrified. 

_ Oh fuck.  _

She felt disgusting. 

She couldn’t explain why to herself. If she could, she would have realized how ridiculous the feeling was.

She checked Rose’s bedside clock.  _ Fuck.  _ Nine PM. She and Rose had been at it for almost four hours. They had to wake up in the morning and get a flight.  _ Fuck I don’t even know where Mal is.  _ Rose’s Omega roommate hadn’t been in the room when T had first barged in. She suspected that Mal would have at least tried to re-enter somewhere along the line, but the young winger was nowhere to be seen.

Tierna shrugged off the blanket on Rose’s bed, got up, and sorted through the pair’s clothes lying around the hotel room. 

As she was going around the room, flashbacks of the night-that-was started popping into her head. Tierna allowed herself to remember the positives. She couldn’t even remember how many times she had come, and different articles of clothing reminded her about different waypoints that stuck out through what was a hazy night. It was a good night, it was a fun night, even if most of the details were lost to passion and the haze of her rut.

By the door, she grabbed her shorts from among Rose’s , reminding her of when she had pinned the athletic Omega up against the wall. An unwritten rule among USWNT Alphas was that you always gave your Omega an orgasm before entering her, because otherwise you always came before your Omega did, but Tierna had been so horny and Rose so well lubricated that she had skipped it, and Tierna had managed to impress herself by making Rose cum as she did for the first time. 

Tierna next retrieved her shoes from the base of the bed, where most of the night had happened. She remendered a moment of taking Rose from behind, fucking her like they were the wolves whose behavior the soccer players' pheromones mimicked. 

Tierna eventually found her t-shirt by the head of the bed. They had finished the night between the sheets, in the most vanilla sex session but the one where they could see each other’s faces. That had been the most fun portion of the evening, the one that wasn’t just rut sex anymore, but with Tierna lucid enough to recognize Rose’s affection.

That thought set her off. She couldn’t be in Rose’s room anymore. Glancing around Rose’s room, she left Omega's clothes lying against the bottom of the bed before grabbing her own and making her way to the door.

“Alpha?”

Tierna’s Alpha swooned at sleepy Rose. Tierna herself still needed out. 

“Just heading out.” Tierna said.

“Stay with me.” Rose said, more loving than the 24 year old appeared normally, her grogginess still in her eyes as she sat .

“I can’t Rose,” Tierna said, sighing, showing her frustration while being unhappy with her inability to stick with her friend.

“Please” Rose tried begging. She wasn’t sure why Tierna wasn’t willing to stay but wanted to try and override a random social taboo.

“This won’t happen again Rose.” Tierna said, trying to muster frustration and firmness with the Omega.

“Oh. Okay.” Rose said.

Tierna retreated to her own room, not knowing how the four-word phrase had hurt the midfielder.

\--

“So?” Andi Sullivan and Rose Lavelle were headed through the Houston Airport. They had gone through security without a hitch, and were now headed towards their gate. 

“What?” Lavelle said, mind elsewhere.

“How’d it go with T?” Sullivan asked.

Lavelle’s sadness suddenly flooded the air, palpable to any Alpha or Omega. “She didn’t want me”

Sullivan read’s Rose’s body language. The Omega was really sad. “Oh Rose, I’m so sorry.” Andi noted that if she sniffed she could smell Tierna’s scent on Rose. Not the type of thing a Beta would have picked up on, but her experienced Alpha nose could pick it up easily, even though Rose had showered most of it off. The scent would linger until Rose had showered a couple more times, at least. The USWNT had broken up camp this morning, so few people would know other than Andi, and Mal, if Rose had decided to tell her, but Sully didn’t miss it. They had slept together. Which made Rose’s statement even more confusing to Andi, but it was best not to pry. Not for a little while.

That sucks Rose.” Sully said to the midfielder as they walked through the terminal. 

“Yeah, whatever. It is what it is.” Sully wasn’t buying it, but was willing to give Rose time to get over it herself.

“Can I do anything?”

“When we get on the plane, just hold me? As a friend, not as an Alpha”

“Of course.” Andi said.

\--

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Next one should be out Wednesday, and then Sunday or Monday again as I try to get back on schedule.


	8. Planes!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with the in-flight conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I know I said Wednesday, but I figured I'd go Thursday, then Tuesday, then Sunday, just to space them out a bit as we get back on schedule.
> 
> If you haven't figured it out already, we're in an AU where the coronavirus doesn't exist. We're entering the part of the year that never got to happen.

Andi Sullivan looked at Rose Lavelle as Rose gazed out a first class window on the American Airlines 737. 

“Hey,” Andi said. “You excited for camp?”

They were on their way to Utah for the April USWNT camp before a set of friendlies against Australia and Brazil. They were in hour three of four of the flight from the Spirit's preseason camp in Florida, where Andi and Rose had gotten to train with their club for the first time since September. It was a great time, and Sullivan was almost as excited for her club year with the Spirit as she was for her USWNT aspirations; she knew she was supposed to be excited about going to the Olympics, and she really wanted to prove to herself that she could be on the roster, but that was only a month-long tournament, and she might not even see minutes. It was quite exciting to know that there was now more than just country to play for in women’s soccer, and the Spirit were a great reminder of that. The camp had been a really good experience. 

Her one complaint was that Rose hadn’t wanted to be intimate, but she chided herself for even thinking that. Rose had cited being tired from camp, and that was certainly a thing, but Andi thought there was probably something more than that; most likely she was still bothered by the whole Tierna thing. Andi wasn’t sure what was best for Rose, but that decision was none of her business. Rose and Andi were, at their core, friends. Then came the ‘with benefits’ part. If your partner doesn’t want sex, they don’t want sex, and, as they had said before they started that relationship, if someone wanted out, they wanted out, no questions asked. Andi had to respect that, especially if she wanted to maintain their friendship, and, even discounting the necessity of their continuing to play well together, Andi needed to be there to help her get through whatever was going on between her and Tierna, if necessary. Andi’s horniness was a valid emotion, but not a helpful one.

“Yeah,” Rose said. “I guess”

“What’s wrong?” Andi asked. She thought she knew the answer, but it was still worth asking about.

“I’m just thinking about Tierna,” Rose said, her eyes still glued to the window.

“Rose, the way she hurt you, she’s probably not worth...all this mental energy” Sullivan didn't cut herself short, not wanting to dismiss Rose’s feelings, but tried to gently let her know her opinion on the matter.

Andi still wasn’t sure exactly what had gone on, but it had been noteworthy, whatever it was.

On the way to Florida from SheBelieves, Andi could sense Rose’s brain spiraling, getting more and more depressed over the course of the flight. Andi had had to do most of the checking in once they had gotten to the hotel the team was staying in, and once the two of them had gotten to the hotel room, Rose had just cried for a good hour, bawling into Andi’s chest as the two of them lay on the bed. That had been the moment Andi had been most sad that the Spirit didn’t still have Mal; she didn’t necessarily feel awkward as an Alpha comforting the Omega in the Omega’s lowest moment, but she felt as though it might have been helpful to have another Omega there. Once Rose had finished sobbing, Andi had asked her if she wanted to call one of the other Omegas, to which Rose had simply said, “no.” At that point, she lay in Andi’s arms for a couple of minutes longer, after which she got up, went to the bathroom, wiped her eyes, and came back, asking Andi if they had missed dinner. Andi thought about asking Rose what the sudden shift was about, but as it turned out a. They were missing dinner, and b. Andi decided not to stir Rose’s emotions up again. After that had happened, Rose had turned her full attention towards camp. From what Andi could tell, Tierna had been locked out of her mind. She had been a little less present at Spirit social events than Andi would have anticipated, but during training, she was all business. It was really impressive, and the team had fed off of it, contributing towards a solid preseason.

“She didn’t hurt me,” Rose said, still looking out the window. Andi could smell that to some degree, Rose was telling the truth, but she remained nonplussed.

“Rose,” Andi tried to find a way to put ‘I find that hard to believe’ into better words, but she couldn’t before she realized her scent was giving her feelings away.

“Andi I’m telling the truth.” Rose said, finally turning to face the Alpha on the plane.

“Okay.” Andi said. “I just...don’t want to see you hurt like you were again.”

“I know that’s what it looks like, but... I overreacted in the moment slightly.” 

Andi smelled Rose lying but Rose was concealing what about from her. 

“Overreaction huh.” Andi said, prodding the Omega midfielder. 

“Yeah, all it was.” Rose was obfuscating her real thoughts from Andi because Andi couldn’t tell what she was lying about. The Omega midfielder wanted to throw herself a party, but she tried to keep herself on an even keel, hoping Andi’s overprotectiveness would prevent Rose from needing to share more information.

“All right.” Andi shifted to the harder part of the conversation. “Are you comfortable being with Tierna this camp?”

“Being with?” Rose said, unable to contain some flare of excitement and nervousness.

Andi cursed her word choice but valued Rose’s reaction as a data point. Some part of the back of her brain extrapolated that Rose couldn’t be excited by the possibility of sleeping with Tierna and also feel that hurt by her, but she wrote it off as some degree of smitten stupidity. “Not like that, just working with her. Are you guys going to be okay?”

“We kind of have to be right?” Courting Alphas and Omegas were pretty standard within the USWNT, but the one rule that got reinforced constantly by the older mated pairs was that you never let your love life interfere with the soccer. Winning came first. Obviously it wouldn’t be smooth sailing all the time, but dating people you’re working with only works if you can compartmentalize to a certain degree, and the USWNT was no exception. Domestic squabbles during camp rarely got loud enough for teammates to notice them. 

“‘Need to be’ and “will be” are two different things.” Andi said gently. She didn’t doubt Rose’s professionalism, but she was concerned about the Omega midfielder.

“Yeah I know” Rose sounded troubled. 

“What do you want to ask me?” Andi said, feeling Rose’s scent change in a way that made it sound like she was working up the courage to ask her something.

“Can I borrow your room key to go talk to T? I need to talk to T.” Rose said the last sentence to both remind and convince herself of its certainty.

“Yeah sure.” Andi was happy Rose was solving the problem, but something else bothered her. “You guys haven’t texted?”

“I’ve sort of been avoiding it.” Rose said, again obfuscating slightly.

Andi smelled the inconsistency but didn’t press. Rose was entitled to her privacy.

“All right, well, what time do you want to do it?” 

“Will you just let me know when she packs into her room? I’ll come quickly. I sort of need to have the task just sort of put before me you know?” Rose imitated dropping a box for emphasis. She was nervous about the conversation, but knew it had to happen.

“Yeah, I understand.” Andi knew what she was about to say was a bad idea, but defended it to herself by saying she was just ‘giving Rose the option’ “Do you want me to talk to T?” 

“No. I can handle it myself” Andi didn’t miss the sting of Rose’s hurt as it bloomed off of the Omega.

“Yeah I know, I’m sorry. Alpha instinct. Doesn’t justify it.” Andi said. 

“You’re okay.” Rose said. “”You’re very predictable” That got a chuckle out of Andi, the two of them still close.

“I know you’d light up T for me if I asked you to.” Rose continued, hugging her friend as tight as she could across the awkwardness of the plane seat. “But I can handle myself. 

“I know,” Andi said. 

\--

“Do you guys want to play a game?” Sam Mewis asked.

“What game?” Lynn Williams asked, at the window seat on the other side of the aisle with her Alpha, Crystal Dunn, in the aisle seat. Abby Dahlkemper was sitting in the window seat next to Sam, letting her taller Omega have the aisle for potential extra leg room, even though they were in first class.

“I don’t know, I hadn’t thought of one. I’ll find one.” Sam scrolled around the console on the airplane’s entertainment device, looking for something that was both playable with four people and entertaining and not having much luck.

“Sam I can’t believe you know your way around the plane’s entertainment thingy” Crystal said with a laugh.

“Hey, I’ve just seen Rose use these as another way to play her games when her phone dies. ” Sam found herself getting defensive around the Alpha, and couldn’t really understand why. The older Alpha was a really good friend, the defensiveness was unnecessary. The four courage teammates who were consistently on the national team enjoyed spending time together travelling back and forth from camps. It was really convenient that most USWNT camps had exactly four courage players. They could fill up a first-class row nicely. Of course, they’d rather have all five players there, but in pseudo-promoting Lynn Willaims to a regular NT player, Vlatko had apparently demoted Jessica McDonald to “fringe-quality” and a minor ankle injury kept her from the April camp, leaving only four Courage players on this plane ride. The older Alpha was a good friend, the defensiveness was unnecessary.

“Oh right,” Crystal said. “I forgot you ghost us to hang out with your Omega gang” Dunn was leaning into her words, playful about the banter.

“Hey, says the girl who hangs out with Julie Ertz more than anyone else on the team.” Mewis fires back.

“Uhh, actually, they were both on  _ that  _ U-20 team.” Dahlkemper chimes in, from her seat behind Mewis, turning on her peak middle schooler know-it-all vibe.

Lynn Williams chooses that moment to chime in, “I swear Julie dotes on me more than her own mate. Whenever I’m around the two, Julie probably says ‘are you ok’ like once every three minutes” Williams works herself into a laugh, exaggerating Ertz’s actions but not by much.

“She and Zach need an Omega.” Dahlkemper says, trying not to gossip especially on the public plane but unable to help herself. The conversation might have some mild fallout if a journalist caught it on record, but it would probably be ok. THe USWNT preferred keeping things in house though, but everyone was laughing a little too much to keep the conversation private.

“Imagine being those two’s Omega.” Lynn says, laughing

“No, imagine  _ crossing  _ those two’s Omega.” Dahlkemper says, imagining getting between Zach and Julie Ertz and their mate, and doubting her ability to survive the ordeal without breaking something. 

“I feel like you’d be fine though, but they’d make you never want to do it again.” Sam said. “Like, Julie would never actually hurt anybody but if she thought you had crossed a line…” 

“She’d make sure you’d never want to again.” Dunn said, finishing Sam’s sentence and revering her absent friend. The Alpha defensive midfielder was no Hope Solo but she was intimidating in her own right.

Sam and Crystal looked at each other, and Sam all of a sudden felt extremely safe. 

Sam pushed the feeling to the back of her mind, returning her attention to the gaming screen in front of her. “So, anyone want to play anything?”

“I’m good Baby,” Abby said, “I’m gonna try and take a nap.” She was always around when Rose tried to convince somebody to play some game or other with her, and Sam knew it just wasn’t her thing.

“I’m gonna try this crime novel Becky recommended.” Lynn said, digging “The Redeemer” out of her backpack.

“You read crime novels?” Sam asked. 

“On occasion.” Lyn said.

“I’ll play with you Sam” Crystal said, thinking it a little weird she was hanging out with another Alpha’s Omega but brushing it off as two of them just being friends.

Sam felt a flutter of warmth, cancelled out by a pang of nerves. Quelling both before a sleepy Abby noticed, she answered “You know what, most of these games suck anyway. I can’t really find anything.”

“All right,” Crystal said, pulling out her phone to listen to some music.

\--

“Lindsey!” Emily said, excitedly running towards the US soccer van whose smell she could just fainty identify.

“Heeeey!” Lindsey said, getting out from the driver’s side of the car. “It’s good to see you!”

While fans knew that Lindsey and Emily were really close, not as many of them knew that the two were dating. Most of them thought it, but Lindsey had developed a phantom boyfriend character that threw most of the more rational ones of the proverbial scent. The two of them had originally done it as a bit, to see whether the fans would believe them, but they actually enjoyed the privacy the white lie afforded them, as it meant they could get through press conferences without weird, “How does it feel to play with with your mate out there on the pitch” questions. Like playing soccer with your favorite person, of course. Duh. It may have been fun to answer that question once, but like fifty times would have been a lot. Lindsey would have thought that the ruse would have been up by now, but fans also thought that Rose and Andi were dating, and even though they weren’t, the fact that there were two questionable mated pairs on the team meant that if they kept up the charade for a decent amount of time, they may have been able to confuse the press if some other pair came up in the future that wanted to protect their privacy. Hence, Alpha and Omega couldn’t actually say “Alpha” and “Omega” to each other when Lindsey met them in a US van outside Salt Lake City international airport.

The jig would be up once they mated of course, as both would have the mating marks on their necks that would be woefully obvious, and their smells would intersect in an obvious enough way that even the weakest Alphas and Omegas would be able to pick them up.

But for now, they contented themselves with just a hug, as although 6 Soccer stars greeting each other wasn’t the biggest deal outside of an airport, it was worth getting out from under the attention of random fan obsessions.

“Hey Alex!” Kelley O’Hara said warmly, jumping out of the passenger side of the van to greet her own mate. 

“Kelley!” said Alex, warmly greeting her mate and giving her a kiss. Everyone knew that Hope had three Omegas, and although the stans disagreed on what that relationship looked like, the fact that Alex and Kelley were close was not lost on anybody.

“Good to see you.” Kelley said to her mate. A lot of times, mates greeted each other at airports if they had some spare time, and although Kelley and Alex had been reunited with both each other and their other mates many a time at instances like these, Kelley had been willing to tag along with Lindsey to see Alex just a bit early, having gone without seeing any of her mates since SheBelieves camp had disbanded. 

“Hey Ashlyn, hey Ali.” Lindsey said, acknowledging the third pair in their small band of six. 

The six of them loaded the Pride entourage’s gear into the back of the van. “Mind if I drive Lindsey?” Ali asked. Ashlyn would want shotgun for her knees, and Ali wanted to be close to her mate, and thought Lindsey would want the same.

“Please” Lindsey affirmed, hopping into the back with Sonnett while Kelley and Alex sat in the middle row.

Once they made it to the back, Sonnett and Lindsey could finally kiss, after which Sonnett hugged Lindsey’s stomach over her seat belt while Lindsey kissed the top of her head. Their FaceTimes had been good, the phone sex had been better, but getting back to each other was best.

Eventually though, Ashlyn convinced Emily to put her seatbelt on and the van got rolling.

“So, how’s the  _ harem _ ” Sonnett poked her head up between the two Omega mates. 

Lindsey got a little hot under the collar as Alex and Kelley both gave off a mote of embarrassment at Sonnett’s use of the word. There was a mild stigma that Harem meant you were under the control of your Alpha, and a lot of Alphas who had multiple Omega mates loved using the word as a means of exercising control. Back on the USWNT, the fact that Hope had three Omegas meant that the word was pretty applicable, but all four mates were averse to using the word to describe themselves. It existed mostly as a joke between their teammates; mostly the older ones who had been around back when Hope and Heather were still on the team. The Omegas in the relationship knew that their teammates knew their value, and it was a somewhat open secret that although Hope never referred to her mates as her harem, she appreciated it when other people did. In turn the three Omegas appreciated that boost of confidence from their Alpha, in whose protection and strength they all took solace.

“We’re good,” Alex said, laughing a little as Sonnett openly broke the useless taboo.

“Hope and Heather are both in LA right?” Ali asked. The oldest among them, she was the most comfortable referring to the goalkeeping legend whose Alpha was wildly intimidating.

“Yup,” Kelley said.

“How’s Heather doing” Lindsey piped in from the rear of the van.

“She’s good!”

“She’s due in June right” Ashlyn questioned from the front seat.

“Yup” Kelley and Alex gave each other a look that was both nerves and excitement.

“You guys are going to be great parents” Lindsey said, feeling really lame as she said it but still having a ton of respect for her two Omega teammates, and the legendary strength of Hope’s Alpha. 

“Thanks Linds” Kelley said, unable to turn around in the van but trying to put a hand on the younger Alpha.

“You guys haven’t seen them in a while huh.” Ali said to the Omegas.

“No, not since before last camp” Alex said, looking out the window. “We’ve still FaceTimed, obviously.”

“You’re not the only one doing the lone Omega thing, Sonnett” Kelley said, this time trying to give comfort to her younger Omega friend.

“It wasn’t so bad.” Sonnett said. “We facetimed a lot, and I didn’t feel alone with you guys around.” Sonnett wanted to add  _ to look after me  _ but realized that would have been a little too Omega. She knew she could handle herself, and she realized Lindsey would always be  _ more  _ protective than Emily made look necessary. As much as Emily liked being doted on, it was best to keep looking at least somewhat independent.

“Yeah! It was fun having you around.” Ashlyn said. Lindsey couldn’t quite place it but thought that Ahslyn sounded a little tense. She’d make a note about it for later.

The rest of the drive went smoothly, the players arriving in Sandy for camp.

Lindsey made a point of holding Ashlyn back as they unpacked their bags. “Hey, you sounded a little tense earlier. About Emily being fun to have around” 

“What? Oh yeah. It’s just a little stressful watching three Omegas in an airport.” Ashlyn said.

“Not a big deal.”

“Yeah I guess.” Lindsey hadn’t really thought about it before, but that made a ton of sense. It was really hard for Alphas NOT to feel responsible for the Omegas in their travelling party, so Ashlyn probably spent most of the security sequence trying to keep each of Alex, Emily, and Ali within her field of vision. All three Omegas were autonomous, but it was hard to shake that feeling; Lindsey thought about saying “Don’t worry, Emily can fend for herself.” It would have been true, but just the thought of letting Ashlyn take her eyes off of her Omega was terrifying. Ali was probably the calmest of the three, but that was Ashlyn’s mate, and while Alex could also handle herself, letting something happen to any of Hope Solo’s Omegas was a terrifying thought. Hope would understand something routine, but if you fucked up, she’d be on your case.

Lindsey was feeling guilty about burdening Ash with the extra Omega but the backup goalkeeper was understanding. “Don’t worry about it Linds. Comes with the territory. I’m just glad we’re in a more controlled environment now.” 

“Thanks Ash. I really appreciate it.”

“I know you do”

\--

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, drop any feedback you have below!
> 
> I don't actually think Soran is a thing. If it is, cool! But don't read into the "Fooling the press" bit as me thinking it's real life.  
> Also, Alex isn't pregnant in this AU. I was originally planning on featuring her a little more heavily, but Captain Morgan is still a fun character to have around. Like most relationships in this, she'll pop up here and there further down the road.


	9. Good Shooting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where two friends talk seriously. And not so seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late to the game but if you aren't watching Breanna Stewart be a cheat code and the rest of the WNBA, I would highly recommend.
> 
> Next chapter out Sunday.

“Hey,” Rose said, standing in Tierna’s doorway.  _ Fucking Andi,  _ Tierna thought to herself, thinking it probable that the older Alpha had conspired to get Rose and Tierna alone in Tierna’s room together. 

That wasn’t fair. Tierna hadn’t been fair to Rose, and she knew it. Andi was just trying to help.

“Hey” Tierna said shortly, not wanting to have the conversation but allowing it to play out.

“Can I come in?” Rose asked. Tierna noticed the Omega’s fear. It wasn’t a lot, but the way it rode under the rest of Rose’s scent was noteworthy. A lot of Omegas wouldn’t confront an Alpha in their own room like this. Rose’s own instincts were pushing her away from doing so. But the confidence and strength that Rose had to be able to talk to Tierna, fighting those inner emotions, while it wasn’t a huge thing, was quite telling. Tierna was appreciative.

“Sure.” Tierna said, allowing the young Omega into the room. 

Rose walked in, got to the wall, and turned around, staring at Tierna, before she decided what to say.

“I think you’ve treated me like shit” Rose said forcefully.

Tierna could smell Rose's waffling beforehand and could continue to sense that Rose had probably oversold it a bit to lead on that. She didn’t doubt Rose felt that way, she just wanted to make her work for it.

“How so” Tierna’s low alto came out as she spoke to Rose. 

“You slept with me, and then you ghosted me.” Rose realized her argument was flawed as soon as she said it, but that was what came out.

“Why does that make you angry?” Tierna found herself talking like she was Rose’s mother, which she doubted Rose appreciated. But Tierna didn’t want to take responsibility for Rose’s previous sentence. It was frowned upon, but Rose wasn’t this angry over a minor social construct.

“You made me feel like a piece of meat.” Rose said with a sigh, releasing her confrontational attitude and sitting on the nearest bed. She had emptied her last bullet; her cards were on the table.

“Why?” Tierna said, walking over and sitting down next to the Omega. Tierna could feel her Alpha almost convulse to see Rose in all of her feelings. but now that her rut was over, her Alpha couldn’t override rational Tierna-brain.

_ One of the benefits  _ Tierna thought to herself, wincing internally.

“I guess I thought,” Rose began, “I guess I thought” Rose’s voice catches. “I could have sworn you were more attracted to me than anyone’s ever been. My Omega’s never been wanted like that before. And then when you just left, you said “This won’t happen again” Like, you were so excited to sleep with me and then you did and you either changed your mind halfway through, or the whole time you thought I was just a one-night stand, and you’d move on to the next thing later. Like I was just a notch under your stupid Alpha belt” At this point Rose was trying not to cry. She wiped a single tear from her right eye, hoping that Tierna didn’t notice but realizing she probably did. Tierna didn’t miss it, nor the resulting sickening feeling in her stomach. All she wanted to do was give Rose a hug after the older Omega’s confession, but in her mind, for Rose’s own sake, Tierna had to keep her at arms length.

“I thought I made it reasonably clear I wanted it to be a one time thing.” Tierna really didn’t think that, and she tried to let Rose know through her scent, but she doubted her ability to do that and wanted to hear Rose’s reaction.

“I mean, sure, at the beginning, but the way you came in, and then the night we had,” Rose trails off.

“So, you're basing your entire emotional state over an Alpha’s rut brain” Tierna hadn’t wanted to put it quite so brutally, and she certainly didn’t want to devalue Rose’s emotions, but when she put it like that she almost cracked up.

Rose did laugh, thankfully. “Obviously not” she said, chuckling before going serious again. “The read I got was that it was more than your rut-brain.”

“That’s not entirely untrue.” Tierna said slowly.

Rose immediately felt a huge weight get lifted off her shoulders. “Oh.”

The pair let that hang between them for a moment before Rose realized Tierna wouldn’t elaborate. “Do you like me?”  _ God I’m saying stupid things.  _ She thought.

“Yeah, I do,” Tierna said. “But, I can’t be your Alpha” she finished, every word heavy.

_ Yes  _ Rose said to herself.  _ I was right.  _ Rose had been torn down when she Tierna said they wouldn’t be together again in March. The thing that kept her going was her hope that Tierna didn’t want to date her but still felt that attraction. If that passion had gone away after spending a night with her, Rose would have had trouble valuing herself as a partner. Which was dumb, but maybe understandable, now that she knew Tierna’s deep want wasn’t fleeting.

Still though, Tierna’s unwillingness to date her was still a mystery..  _ Damn she’s hard to read.  _ She couldn’t smell anything on the young Alpha.

“Okay.” Rose said, understanding. “But, I really like you. Would it be okay if we just spend some more time together?” She wanted to be around the Alpha; even if they were on the national team together, normalizing hanging out together would increase their exposure. Rose was hoping she could understand the young Alpha better, and maybe, Tierna would allow herself to be her Alpha. Rose knew rationally that she couldn’t expect that from Tierna, but her Omega really wanted to try.

“Like, friends?” 

“I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to be on the national team and not be friends.” Rose said.

Tierna chuckled. “It’s been done before.”

“Yup.” Rose said giggling.

Tierna looked at Rose, noting the way she turned her face as she laughed. Like she knew you might not find her humor funny but she was going to revel in it herself. The thought of being away from that was not something she wanted to continue having.“Yeah, let’s spend more time together, I’d like that.” She didn’t have to be Rose’s Alpha, but she could still partake in some of the joy that Rose made her feel. She could have that.

“Like dating?” Rose said, immediately realizing she overstepped.

“Let’s not call it that,” Tierna said, taking a pin out of the proverbial balloon.

“Sorry.”

“No you’re good.” Tierna said, allowing herself to try and settle Rose’s nerves after their boundaries were somewhat established. “I look forward to friend-dating”

“Cool!” Rose wanted to process what just happened, so she turned as if to leave. Tierna also got up, thankful that Rose was leaving, a lot taken out of her.

“Hey T,” she said before she left “I’m sorry if it felt like I took advantage of you.”

“Please don’t ever think that.” Tierna said. “My call. Seriously.”

Weirdly, Rose smelled more Alpha on Tierna during that than at any other point in the conversation. It was quite clear the young defender was telling the truth.

“Cool, thanks” Rose said. “It was a good night,” she added, smiling as she opened the door.

“It was a good night.” Tierna said.  _ Was that smile forlorn?  _ Just like that, Tierna was unscentable again.  _ Weird.  _ Rose thought, heading down the hallway.

\--

“Hello!” Rose said, plopping herself down next to Tierna during Wednesday breakfast before their Friday friendly against Australia.

“What’s up?” Tierna asked, learning to accept more random gestures of friendship from Lavelle. Tierna had continued to spend most of camp hanging out with Andi, on the periphery of the Omega gang instead of directly involved with it, but Tierna finally understood that Rose was throwing intentional glances in her direction from across dinner tables at least since the March camp. It was nice, that sense of attention. Especially when she had gone a long time without remembering why she didn’t deserve it.

“What are your plans for your free afternoon?” Lavelle asked, starting to bite into her granola. They had an afternoon off a couple days before the Australia friendly, to decompress and also give their brains some downtime, what with them being in 2 national team games, and then immediately thrust back into their club pictures.

“Dunno” Tierna said. “Might just stay in my room and read.”

“Lame” Rose said. “So anti-social”

“Hey, lot’s of social people on this team love to read. All the cool Omegas love to read.” Tierna said, knowing Rose spent a lot of her free time playing games on her phone, throwing a light verbal jab at the young Omega.

“Oh, heck off,” Rose says, trying to appear indignant in front of the Alpha

“ _ Heck.  _ Off?” Tierna says, incredulously looking at the Omega, laughing at the ridiculousness of it while trying to appreciate Rose using it unironically.

“I used it a lot as a kid, trying to get myself not to swear. You know a lot of Omega soccer athletes are told not to swear during games? I sort of established heck off as a way of being angry at something. Used it a lot back in high school.”

“Fair enough,” Tierna said, still laughing at ‘heck off’ bur appreciating where it came from. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s not okay to swear.” 

“Yeah I know. Used to say it to my teammates at Wisconsin. I guess something from my college days” Rose said.

After a moment of silence Rose all of a sudden realizes that Tierna’s withdrawn. It’s still really hard to read the Alpha, but Tierna’s eyes have trailed off of the conversation.

Rose didn’t really know how to continue, but Tierna snapped herself out of whatever it was. “What are  _ your  _ afternoon plans Rose?”

“Oh. The gang wanted to go to a minigolf place, Sam and Lindsey asked the team staff, and they said it was fine.”

“Do they want a 1 to 1?”

“They said they could send a couple staff members along, but we’d really just like to explore the place by ourselves.” USSF loved to say they were hands off with their Omega players, but they often insisted on there not being too many Omegas out in public on their own, for “security reasons.” There wasn’t a whole lot set in stone, but the Omegas had learned that if they went somewhere where there was at least one Alpha for each Omega, no one gave them any grief.

“So Andi has Mal, and you need someone to come with you.” 

“Well, I’d rather say the bosses want someone to come with me. We’d have Abby, Lindsey, and Andi watching four Omegas, which is more than enough.”

“I’d agree. I suppose you wouldn’t like it if I were there then.” Tierna said with a smirk

“I didn't say that,” Rose said, blushing slightly as she realized the minor trap she’d laid for herself. “I’m sure everyone would love having you around. I just wish it didn’t feel like I was being babysat.”

“Oh yeah, I totally get that.” Tierna agreed.

“So, you want to come hang with me and the Omega gang?” Rose playfully emphasized the word she knew the rest of the team called their little friend group.

“You had me at minigolf.” Tierna grinned

\--

Turns out, hanging out with the Omegas, Lindsey, and Abby by playing minigolf was a good time. 

They took two vans for the 45 minute drive to Boondocks Food and Fun, claiming a couple of rental cars that US soccer would rent and use as unmarked vehicles during camps, perfect for outings like this one where the soccer players could keep a low profile in their pursuit of an afternoon off.

The mini-golf place had plenty of other entertainment options, but the 8 soccer players decided that they’d all do a round of minigolf before seeing how much time they had left to see the rest of the amusement park. Sonnett looked pretty interested in bumper boating, and despite everyone else poking fun at Sonnett for being on brand, everyone else was down.

Tierna stood back but eavesdropped mildly as Andi went through the gesture of offering to pay for Rose and Mal, before both Omegas said that they could handle themselves. Rose made the point about Andi not needing to support three players when she was still on an NWSL salary, while Mal added the point that Andi still wasn’t contracted. 

“She should be contracted,” Rose said with a pout. Tierna had to keep herself from chuckling.

Both other mids in the room talked up Andi as well, letting her know that they both fully expected her to be around the national team for a while, while Rose hugged the Alpha, all while whispering in her ear that it was not un-Alpha to let the Omegas pay for themselves.

Sonnett let Lindsey pay for her, allowing her to say that it was a date, and Sam and Abby had already pooled most of their financial resources as mates, but Lindsey let Rose and Mal venmo her as she paid for the minigolf. With the logistics out of the way, the team hit the links.

There were two different golf courses, so the teammates decided to split up into two groups of four, and it made sense to just do two alphas and two Omegas. Rose and Emily both were interested in the blurb of one of the golf courses, so Tierna and Lindsey tagged along, while Sam, Abby, Mal, and Andi took the other path.

Golfing with Rose and Soran turned out to be really fun. Lindsey and Sonnet would always go first, with Sonnett running back and forth up and down the course to point out where the most important location on each whole was. But Tierna and Rose both hung back and strategized, Tierna pointing out how she would attack each course, typically opting for safe, consistent shots that would consistently sink each whole at par or slightly under. 

  
Rose typically countered by suggesting a bolder opening shot, saying that if she made her first shot, then it would go into the hole in a stroke or two. 

Tierna figured that by being more conservative she’d end up with a better score; if Lavelle could hit her shots about three quarters of the time, the midfielder would probably do better, but she didn’t trust Lavelle’s putting abilities, and she trusted her own even less.

As it turned out, Rose Lavelle could do anything.

“Lavelle, you’re so good at this!” Tierna exclaimed after Rose sunk her fourth birdie in a row. Tierna’s own strategy was working out nicely, but she at this point was a good three or four strokes behind Rose.

“I am indeed,” Rose said, tilting her sunglasses down over her eyes and starting to dance.

“Ope, she thinks she’s Crystal” Emily said, starting to laugh. 

“She’s not bad, but she’s no Crystal” Tierna agreed, chuckling but still appreciative of Rose’s antics.

“I may have to get bolder, because apparently Rose is God-Tier at mini-golf.” Tierna said, still laughing at her own expense, but not getting too tied up in frustration. Some national teamers were competitive enough that they hated to lose, even at mundane competitions such as this one. Lindsey and Tierna had been going at each other for the first few holes, and Tierna could tell Lindsey was getting frustrated with herself, not mad that she was losing but deeply believing she could be winning. Tierna was thankful that she was able to turn off that part of her brain in situations like this.

Sonnett was just chilling as well, going for all of Rose’s trickshots a little too aggressively and missing all of them, laughing at herself the whole time.

“Tierna, I bet you could make all the shots I can,” Rose says, wanting to pump up a woman she could come to think of as her Alpha but not wanting to overdo it.

“Yeah T, I bet you you’re good enough” Lindsey said, encouraging the young Alpha.

After that, Tierna started trying to hit the tougher shots. Her first attempt failed somewhat miserably but after some encouragement from Rose, Tierna found that she was able to sink the same types of shots that Rose could. The two of them battled their way down the back nine, but Rose was able to take it by a couple of strokes, with Lindsey finishing not far behind Tierna and Sonnett bringing up the rear.

“Rose, you are too good at minigolf” Tierna said, smiling at the Omega. 

“Oh I don’t think so” Rose said cheekily, going up to Tierna to give her one of her passionate teammate hugs. “I bet if you had gone taken some of the more difficult shots right from the beginning you would have beaten me.” It was true. Tierna and Rose had spent the majority of holes discussing each hole’s best strategy. Tierna may not have drained every shot Rose had, but it may have been closer had Tierna trusted herself to make all of the shots Rose tried from the very beginning.

“We should play again,” Lindsey said with a smirk, wanting another chance to prove herself. 

“Shouldn’t we wait for the other group to finish first, Alpha?” Emily said, giving Lindsey a quick peck on the cheek, preemptively trying to move Lindsey away from her competitive side and get her thinking leadership and logistics again.

“Yes we should” Lindsey said, pulling herself out of it. Rose and Tierna didn’t really want to play another game; Rose was reveling in her victory and Tierna was tired, wanting to check out some of the other things the mini amusement park had available.

After returning to the golf staging area, the 4 players realized that the other group wasn’t back yet. “I’m going to run to the bathroom quickly.” Rose said, turning back toward the parking lot and the area where bathrooms were.

“You should go with her T,” Lindsey said. As she said it, the scent she gave off indicated it wasn’t an choice.

Tierna was wrankled slightly at being told what to do by the older Alpha, but she was more irritated when she smelled Rose’s irritation at the feeling of Lindsey needing somebody to follow her for the 200 hundred feet to the bathroom. Tierna could tell Rose was frustrated that Lindsey thought she couldn’t handle herself, although Tierna assumed that Rose wouldn’t mind her company.

“Yeah I’ll walk with her,” Tierna said. She supposed her Alpha would have told her to stand up to Lindsey, but her Alpha also wouldn’t want to leave the Omega alone.

Alphas. So predictable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you have any fun rest day ideas! I might not be able to use everything because there's plenty of plot on this trip to get to, but all ideas are good ideas!.


	10. Good Samaritans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which the bystander effect gets dunked on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some harrassment at the beginning here, but it isn't too much. Nothing graphic. There's a "Content warning ends here" in Bold and some space when it's over. Summary in the end notes.
> 
> In other news, we're on Sundays again! Same time next week.

Tierna Davidson and Rose Lavelle headed over the bridge across the bumper boats area to get to the bathroom. Tierna let Rose go ahead of her, making her way into the bathroom while still allowing herself to keep an eye on the older Omega.

Tierna took a look over the bumper boating area below her, trying to get a sense of any strategy involved when she heard a sound coming from the bathroom

“Hey there, little Omega!”

That couldn’t possibly be good.

Tierna turned her head slightly from where she was observing the bumper boats, assessing what was going on. She noted that Rose had come out of the bathroom, but the important part was that some huge male had pinned what looked like a young Omega to the wall.

_ In public?  _ Tierna thought.  _ Well, I suppose it’s Utah. But still, this seems bold.  _

Tierna wasn’t sure if she should do anything. There were a lot of people coming in and out of the restrooms and she assumed somebody closer would jump in, but she walked toward the tangled pair

“Hey, I was just rejoining my friends” She got close enough to pick out the two scent trails, noting that while the Omega obviously didn’t want to be there, she was still playing it off nicely, trying to get herself out of the situation. They obviously weren’t mates though, which meant Tierna now knew the guy wasn’t acting in good faith. She got close enough to pick out the trail of alcohol on the guy’s breath.  _ Really dude? _

Rose met T on the steps of the bathroom, Rose not wanting to run but also wanting to retreat behind an Alpha where it was safe, waiting to see what T would do.

Tierna had been planning on doing nothing, hoping to let the Omega talk her way out of the situation, when the Alpha male said “Here, Omega, come with me and let me show you a good time.” The slight nerves Tierna smelled on the Omega under him had bloomed into full-blown fear, and that was Tierna’s signal that it was time to get involved.

“Stay close” she told Rose, realizing she’d have to take her eyes off of the Omega but still wanting to track her with her nose. 

Raising her voice, “Hey!” She said, walking up to the big Alpha. “Leave the Omega alone.” 

The Alpha didn’t even bother to turn. “Stay out of our business, Beta girl”

_ Welp _ . Tierna hadn’t wanted to make a scene, but it did appear as if the scene needed to be made. She grabbed the alpha’s back, dragging him off of the Omega and shoving him into the wall by the bathroom, sticking her right leg right underneath his to send him to the floor if needed, using what weight she had to immobilize the male who had probably 60 pounds on her. 

She was a professional soccer player. She was faster than this clown, she was stronger than this clown, but she still couldn’t be heavier than this clown.

“Don’t try anything,” Tierna hissed, putting her hand to the back of the Alpha’s neck as she pinned him to the wall. She didn’t want more attention than there already was, and she really didn’t want to come to blows with this dude. 

“Everything ok over here?” Out of the corner of her eye, Tierna noticed a gentleman that looked like park staff. After a quick sniff, she realized he was an Alpha, and was therefore probably capable of acting as park security. 

“He was just leaving,” Tierna said, pointedly glaring at the Alpha while trying to avoid the attention of the small crowd that was now forming. 

The security guard noted the alcohol on the gentleman’s breath, saying “Sir, if you would come with me.” Tierna shoved him in the guards direction and they both turned towards the park exit.

**Content Warning ends here**

**Content warning ends here**

_ Prick,  _ Tierna thought, watching the dude head away with the security guard. She returned her attention to her Omega charge, finding Rose talking to the Omega Tierna had just bailed out of a tough situation, asking if she was okay. She said she was, she just needed to return to her friends in the food court, a couple of minutes away.

“Do you want us to come with,” Rose asked gently, trying to make sure the young Omega was comfortable. 

“I wouldn’t want to trouble you guys.” The Omega said quickly, still obviously shaken up but trying to act like she was shrugging it off.

“You wouldn’t be,” Tierna said, not smiling, but sincere. 

“Come on” Rose said, throwing Tierna a glance that said “Thank you” before heading off toward the food area with the young Omega in tow. Tierna shadowed from behind, ensuring no further danger would trouble the pair while giving the Omegas some space.

Once the two got to the food court, two Omegas popped up from where they were sitting and rushed over to Rose and the smaller omega. 

“Oh my God, Hayley, are you okay?” the first one asked, running up to her friend and the unknown Omega that brought her here.

“She’ll be alright” Lavelle said, Hayley able to nod confirming as both of her friends ran up to her, giving her warm hugs.

“What happened? The older of the two Omegas said, while the other continued doting on Hayley.

“A drunk Alpha came onto her a little strong in the bathroom. My Alpha-” Rose cut herself off. “My Alpha friend pulled him off of her before anything happened, but she’s still a little shaken up.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have sent her alone.” The other Omega said.

“No, this wasn’t anyone’s fault” Rose said sincerely, looking at the two Omegas. “Except that stupid Alpha’s” Rose finished, obviously still frustrated.

“Thanks for bringing her,” the Omega said.”You’re Rose Lavelle, right” she said, a slight non-sequitur, but finally able to put a name to a face that she had perceived as familiar

“Yup” She said, grinning,

“Yeah, i watched the world Cup last year. It’s really cool to meet you, although not under these circumstances.” 

“Yeah,” Rose laughed. “Silver lining, I guess.”

“I’m sorry I don’t remember your name,” the older Omega said to Tierna, who had been standing a few feet away the whole time but was clearly the “Alpha friend” Rose had mentioned earlier.

“Tierna” Davidson said, coming over to shake the Omega’s hand. “Don’t worry about it, it’s easier to remember starters, and forwards, and she’s both, and I’m neither.” The five of them laughed for a moment. 

“Seriously though, thanks”, Hayley said, the Omega now recovered enough to address her helpers. 

“Anyone would have done what I did” Tierna said sincerely, Rose nodding agreement.

“Still, thank you.”

\--

“That was a really nice save back there” Rose said to Tierna, the two of them now together on the bumper boat railing, observing the chaos that was going on below as the two talked. They had walked back towards their friends after ensuring Hayley was okay, and both Tierna and Rose had offered to quickly take selfies with all three girls. Only the oldest one actually knew who they were, but she had pointed out that the national team stars might be cooler down the road, and it’d be nice to have the pictures of the time they met them.

“Any Alpha on the team would have made it.” Davidson said sincerely, looking out over the boats.

“Yeah.” Rose agreed, raising herself up off of the railing. Tierna noticed the Omega was tense, and she could sense that tension wasn’t about her.

“What’s up Rose?” Tierna asked

“Would you mind downplaying what just happened to Andi and Lindsey? I really don’t want them getting mad over this.”

“You’re afraid they’d get overprotective?” Tierna asked

“Sort of, I just don’t want them to use this as an excuse to never let me go anywhere on my own ever again, you know?”

“What makes you think I wouldn’t?” 

Rose tilts her head at that. “You know, I don’t actually know. I feel like you wouldn’t though, for some reason. It’s like, you trust me.”

“I don’t think it’s about trust.” TIerna said sincerely. “But I do think you’re right. I wouldn’t.” 

Rose was mystified by an Alpha saying that, and she still couldn’t smell anything on the Alpha. It was the weirdest shit. Right then, she remembered something the drunk Alpha had said. “Beta girl.” Rose had always known that Tierna was an Alpha, and her rut definitely happened, but outside of that and a few other instances, it was almost impossible to tell the difference. It might have made her nervous that the Alpha she was warming up to didn’t really smell like one, but the way she had intervened to save Hayley let her know that Tierna would always be in any Omega’s corner. It was a weird quirk of her personality though.  _ There’s an answer there somewhere. I hope she tells me, eventually.  _

The midfielder thought about asking Tierna to lie to the other Alphas again, but the defender preempted her question.

“I’m not lying to Andi if she starts asking questions, but I’ll say we got stopped by some fans in the food court.”

“Thanks” 

“You got it.”

\--

Becky Sauerbrunn and Alyssa Naeher always loved going to bookstores. 

When other people asked them about it, they couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was about the experience that made it so worthwhile. They realized as professional athletes that there was no necessity in going to a bookstore, but the two of them still headed out to a quaint, locally owned bookstore on their rest afternoon, thinking it was as good a place as any for a date away from the rest of the team.

“You know, one of these days, we’re going to go into one of these and find that we have nothing to do,” Naeher said, easing up into Becky’s side as they made their way inside.

“My working theory is that that has already happened, and you’re just using this as an excuse to not have to pay for a dinner date” Becky said with a chuckle as they gradually ascertained the bookstores layout.

“Do you want to split up or explore together?” Alyssa said. 

“Let’s split up, we’ll cover more ground that way.” 

“K babe.” Alyssa gave Becky a quick peck on the cheek.

Alyssa and Becky had discovered it was fun to split up on dates like this because of how the mating bond worked; they could be on opposite ends of the store and still catch each other’s interest in a good book, or a rush of excitement at seeing a new entry in a book series that they loved, or, as was important to Alyssa, the pang of fear that would accompany any danger Becky got herself into. Becky assumed, probably correctly, that that would never be necessary, but Alyssa took solace in it, knowing that she’d be close enough should some random Alpha decide to be stupid.

However, today was an uneventful day as Becky went over towards the fiction section, exploring the various mystery franchises that the bookstore had to offer, preferring to browse around stores like these on the hunt for new franchises instead of scouring Amazon. It was sort of a ritual for her, the feeling of reading a back cover to gauge the plot of the book, trying to decide if she was going to give this relatively unknown author a chance. Nothing got her into her own headspace quite the same way.

Naeher, on the other hand, went the opposite direction, into the non-fiction section, exploring the books about real historical events, but hoping to find a few with an interesting twist. It wasn’t like she was only into fiction and Becky was only into non-fiction, but Becky found the odd murder mystery way more entertaining than anything else, while Naeher found biographies and autobiographies, when written well, to be more gripping than anything. 

_ Maybe I’m just weird  _ Naeher thought to herself, glancing at Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime once again before scrolling through some other Comedian self-help books. She hadn’t really liked any of them besides Trevor’s, noting that they were a little too full of themselves. 

_ That’s probably what Alex would be like if she wrote a book  _ Naeher thought to herself, smiling. That wasn’t entirely fair, but Naeher knew it. She was still mildly angry at Alex for taking Becky’s captaincy, even though Becky had been more than chivalrous when giving it up. It wasn’t even really Alex’s fault; U.S. Soccer had wanted a more recognizable face in the Captaincy, and, because Becky didn’t score goals, she wasn’t that. Which was stupid in it’s own right and both Alex and Becky knew it at the time, but it wasn’t like Alex had refused to take it. Then again, Becky hadn’t asked her to. It was something Naeher got mad about and Becky didn’t. Becky had told Naeher at the time that it wasn’t worth it. Naeher chuckled, remembering the moment in bed when Naeher had grumbled “I’m not scared of Hope” when Becky had asked Naeher what she was supposed to do if the Alpha keeper had gone after the new Omega captain. That thought had probably scared Becky more than Hope herself did.

Anyway, Alyssa wasn’t angry about it anymore, but she still enjoyed a chuckle or two at Alex’s expense, even though the two were close, especially since they had won a World Cup together. Becky had also mentioned that the work she was doing as president of the player’s association was more important than being the captain of the team, and she often reminded Alyssa that the leadership of the team often came from players that weren’t the captain. Carli Lloyd was a great winner, but Julie Ertz was often the one firing the team up at halftime, and there was no way of knowing it, but the fact that Sam Mewis often came to Becky for advice meant that she had the respect of the younger Omegas more than Alex did. She had a calm, level head, even if she wasn’t the captain.

Alyssa smiled to herself, remembering her mate's strengths and proud of her as ever as she returned her attention to the non-fiction in front of her, turning her attention from the self-help books on one wall to the autobiographies of the other, when she felt a pang of sadness.

Alyssa immediately perked up, realizing it came from Becky through their bond, and headed back towards the front of the store to track her mate’s scent. Upon picking it out, she wound her way back through the fiction section to find her, standing in the kids section, staring forlornly at a copy of  _ Goodnight Moon. _

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bring you here.” Becky said as Naeher came up and gave her a hug from behind

“You were sad” Naeher said simply, as Becky put her hands on Naeher’s arms.

“Thanks” Becky said, glad as ever to know that her mate had her back.

“I don’t know why, I know we were supposed to put this discussion on hold for later, for some reason I just got a little choked up” Becky said.

“It’s okay” Naeher said, using just her eyes to appraise the rest of the kids section. It was adorned with books that a three year old might have. In front of her was Goodnight moon, but out of the corner of her eye she sighted a copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon, and a couple members of the Curious George franchise were down to her left.

“Sorry, I don’t know why I’m getting this emotional,” Becky said, kind of miffed that she got fixated to a wall during a soccer camp.

“No, it’s ok.” Naeher said, hugging Becky tight. She knew having kids meant a lot to her, the idea of that being taken away had weighed on her suddenly, right here, in a bookstore. The thought bothered Alyssa.

“We’re going to have kids, Becky” Alyssa said, certain of it.

“But I thought,-”

“Yeah, I know, and that’s a conversation we need to have. Or more accurately, I need to have” Alyssa continued. “But I will get over myself and we will have kids. Don’t you worry about it” 

Becky could still sense Alyssa’s tension but could tell that her mate was being truthful. She remembered that Lys had said that she wanted to have kids, and she realized that her feeling the impossibility of it was somewhat irrational. Still, she was glad to have the reassurance from her mate.

“Thanks Babe” she said to Naeher. “I’m still mad you won’t tell me anything about why you’re nervous.” She said with a grin.

“Yeah, I know,” Alyssa smiled before giving her Omega a quick peck on the cheek. “Do you want to show me the fun sci-fi novels you found?”

“Nothing really worth noting except this one,” Becky said, showing Alyssa the murder mystery she had tucked under her arm. 

“K” Alyssa said, the two of them headed to checkout.

\--

“You guys, that was so much fun!” Mal said happily, as the four of Omegas of the gang finally got dinner back at the team hotel, done with their outing. They had finished up their afternoon by doing a round of bumper boating, before returning to the team hotel after checking out the rest of the mini-amusement park.

“Yeah,” Sonnett said. “Especially when I got to bully Sam!” 

“Very funny Sonnett,” Sam said, trying to laugh.

“What’s wrong Sam?” Rose questioned, noting the Omega was subdued. 

“Nothing. It’s really nothing. I had fun today” Sam rejuvenated herself, truthful. She had had a good time that day, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.  _ Which was dumb!  _ She kept telling herself. She had had Abby right there! The two of them had had fun mini golfing, the two of them great mates as always. She was confused as to why her Omega had felt that way.  _ Why won’t it go away?  _ Whatever. She’d deal with it later. “I’m glad that we finally got to be in a similar weight class, Sonnett”

“You’re mean,” Sonnett said, pretending to pout but laughing inside. The four Omegas had enjoyed shoving each other around in bumper boats, and the fun part was, they were all of a similar weight, so the three smaller Omegas could all beat the alphas in a shoving match for the first time. It was a cool experience. 

“Rose, how was golfing with Tierna?” Mal asked.

“It was fine,” Rose shrugged, not wanting to draw much attention to it but not really lying. The golfing match part of the day was really enjoyable, but it hadn’t needed to be much more. What happened outside the bathroom had escaped her mind for the moment. She was feeling pretty neutral about the whole day.

“So, when are you guys going public?” Sam asked.

Rose almost did a double take. “Really, Sam?” She asked. She hadn’t exactly made her dealings with Tierna known to her friends. She would have assumed that either Sonnett or Mal would have assumed it was a thing, especially since Mal had been conspicuously quiet about the recovery night when she and Tierna had been screwing the night away. She was not expecting Sam to assume they were dating in this way. Not that she hated her guessing, she just would have assumed Sam would have given her space. 

“Sorry Rose” Sam said. “Kind of a joke. Didn’t mean to overstep.” Sam could probably smell that Rose wasn’t that miffed, but she overapoligized anyway, respecting Rose’s space. One of the reasons that the older midfielder was credited with being the most mature of the four.

“It’s all right Sam,” Rose said. 

“But you two are dating right?” Emily said, grinning.

“We’re just friends.” Rose said somewhat timidly, unused to talking about her relationships, but allowing her friends to know. “She doesn’t want to be my Alpha”

“She doesn’t want to be your Alpha” Mal repeated, a look of judgemental disapproval plastered on her face, a feeling echoed by the two other Omegas at the table, with Sonnett just confused and Sam trying her best to understand.

“Yeah. Just friends,” Rose said, choosing not to defend the Alpha, not wanting to unveil Tierna’s mysteriousness just yet.

“I bet she doesn’t want to date an Omega that’s starting over her.” Sonnett said, smirking.

“Oh that’s why Lindsey settled for you?” Mal cut in immediately. That earned a shove from Sonnett, the two of them giggling.

“Tierna Davidson? Emasculated? I find that hard to believe” Mewis said, returning to her normal voice-of-reason persona in the friend group.

“I don’t know, Alphas have done stupider things.” Mal said. Sonnett and Sam both tilted their heads in mild agreement

The three of them noticed Rose’s head was down, all of a sudden aware that they’d just shat on their teammate’s new “friend,” who was also their teammate.

“Hey Rose,” Sonnett said. “That’s probably not the reason.” It had been the first thing that had come to her mind, but she knew Tierna was a more level head than she was, so that was fairly unlikely to end any fledgling relationship.

“No, it’s okay, I thought it was a good bit,” Rose said smiling.

Yet somehow, it stayed on her mind. _ Could that be the reason?  _ It didn’t make any sense, but the Alpha was unreadable. She’d have to go on another friend-date to find out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tierna bailed an Omega she didn't know out of a situation where an Alpha came onto her strong.


	11. A Frienddate.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with the locker room celebrations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> Fair warning, although I don't anticipate any breaks in upload schedule, the distinct possibility exists that I don't add another chapter for a while. Don't worry, I will return to finish this fic regardless, (I'm having so much fun writing it) but I may be delayed, either after this week or next week's post.
> 
> Now back to the show

“Great job guys!” Megan Rapinoe said, walking into the locker room. 

Whoops and cheers were heard from the rest of the USWNT as they filed back into the locker room after a narrow 2-1 victory over Australia. It was close, but Australia was a good enough team that any victory was worth celebrating, even in a friendly. The locker room celebration would consist of a few more whoops and cheers, as much a part of post-game decompression as the warm showers they were about to take.

Most of the team quickly stripped down their outer uniforms and headed for the showers, but Sam Mewis convinced Emily and Mal to wait up a while for a couple of their teammates to finish in the mixed zone.

“Lynn! Lynn!” The Omegas chorused, bowing down in a show of mock respect, prostrating themselves like the Omega striker was royalty as Lynn Williams finally made her way into the Omega side of the locker room. U.S. Soccer made a point of making sure Alphas and Omegas had separate spaces to change, even if all the players were female.

“Aww, guys!” Lynn said, still shy around the rest of the national team but appreciating the show of respect from the rest of her Omega teammates around her age.

“We are not worthy!” Mal said, coming up from behind Sam to give the Omega a hug.

“Seriously though, great goal Lynn,” Sam said, standing up from where she sat on the locker room bench in her sports bra and shorts and giving her teammate a hug. “Big goal. Great goal.”

“No one wants to compliment me on my goal?” Rose said, mock pouting as she walked into the locker room after Lynn. She and Lynn, as the two goalscorers, had been kept out by the media for interviews longer than everybody else was. 

“No, Rose scores all the time” Lynn says, poking fun at the midfielder in a manner that she felt Sonnett would.

“Doesn’t even count,” Sonnett said, playing right off of Lynn’s banter in a way that made Lynn feel more a part of the in-group than anything else she could have said. “It took a deflection.”

“It was going in anyway!” Rose insisted, truthfully.

“Irrelevant!” Sonnett said, making a finger point as if the statement were some sort of decree. 

“Y’all are mean!” Rose said with a laugh, moving over to her locker so she could get get showered. The 5 of them laughed, as they all stripped off their outer clothing and headed towards the shower stalls in the rear.

\-- 

“Hey. Great work out there Sunny.” 

Andi Sullivan turned her head to look at Julie Ertz pulling on a training shirt as she finished getting dressed.

“Thanks.” Andi said, genuine. She could scent that the other Alpha six was somewhat impressed with her body of work, and for Julie, that was high praise. Ertz held herself to a ridiculously high standard, and everyone knew the blond Alpha midfielder encouraged everyone else to get to those standards as well. An individual compliment like this was hard to get.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were coming to take my job,” Ertz said, smiling

“I feel like that’s the hardest thing to do in WoSo” Andi said, pulling on her own top as Ertz tied her shoes. “I mean, anybody can win a World Cup, but play better than you in the six?”

“This is just you trying to get me to let my guard down. Flattery will get you nowhere.” 

“You caught me!” Andi said, grinning. “Seriously though, thanks for the compliment.”

“You deserve it. I almost felt comfortable being off the field today.” 

Wow. Julie was showering Andi with compliments. She must have really played well. The Aussies had spend the entire first 70 minutes bunkering in, and Andi had been subbed on at halftime just to “manage Julie’s minutes.” Andi felt that there’s no way they would have done that in a more open game, but her ability as an attacking player was useful to have in that game as a six, as they got an extra player into the attack. Once Lynn had scored the go-ahead goal though, the game stretched out a lot more and Andi found herself in a lot more of a traditional six role, and if Ertz was saying she was okay at that, then, wow. Ertz hated being on the sideline.

“Thanks, Julie. I’d love to start grabbing some of your minutes off your hands.”

“You saying I want to give them up, Sunny?”

“Never,” Sullivan said with a laugh, following the older midfielder out towards the bus.

“Damn straight” Julie said.

\--

“Hey Babe, you ready to go?” Alyssa Naeher asked Becky Sauerbrunn as the latter made her way out of the Omega side of the locker room.

“Yup,” Becky said. “Great game babe” 

“Thanks, you too,” Naeher said.

“Thanks. Sorry I left you out to dry on the goal” Becky said. Becky started the game at Centerback, but had been replaced by Tierna at halftime after getting burned by Sam Kerr on a breakaway in the 37th minute for an equalizer. Vlatko had put Tierna in the backline after that to manage Becky’s minutes leading up to the Olympics, as well as to have more athleticism on the backline to keep up with the speedy Aussie Striker.

“Don’t mention it. It is really hard to contain Sam Kerr for 90 minutes” Naeher said.

“That it is” Becky said, remembering all the times she tried to deal with her back when she was in the NWSL. “I just sort of feel like I ruined your clean sheet.”

“Seriously babe, things happen. Just get the next one. Besides, now Nikki won’t be hounding me to let her score all the time”

“Nikki Stanton thinks not letting Sam score would be you bullying her Omega?” Becky asked, incredulously.

“It was sort of a running joke in practice, but sometimes she sounded halfway serious.”

“Alphas are dumb” Becky said, rolling her eyes.

“That we are” Naeher grinned, giving Becky a peck on the cheek, as they headed out to the bus.

\--

“Hey, great game Rose”

“Thanks Mal” Rose said, leaning on the smaller Omega’s shoulder as the two of them sat next to each other as they bussed to the hotel.“You played great too.”

“Yeah,” Mal said, her pheremones indicating that she was still frustrated. “It felt a little like I was running around on the right wing just to give Tobin and Pinoe some downtime.” Both Pinoe and Tobin had started on the bench, with Pinoe replacing Press on the left Wing about sixty minutes in. Mal, younger and fresher, had picked up a lot of right wing minutes in Tobin’s stead.

“No way. You were amazing in that game. When you pinched in and let Kelley run in behind you, you gave Australia fits. Plus, you got to link up with me” Rose said, smiling. 

“I know, I’m just not sure Vlatko does,” Mal said, nuzzling into her friend’s neck. She had missed this. They still enjoyed rooming together during national team camp, but it sucked that she didn’t get to play with one of her best friends for both club and country anymore.

“What do we say Mal,” Rose gently reminded her friend.

“Earn everything” Mal confirmed, raising her head away from Rose.

“Correct,” Rose said. “You’re good enough to start, especially in games we need that linkup play. We play another 30 minutes today and you would have scored. 100 percent. Vlatko saw that”

“Thanks Rose,” Mal said, wondering when her friend suddenly got so wise. It was nice, but it was also kind of unsettling. She longed to get back to their normally bantering selves.

“How’s it going with you and Madame Cryptic?” Mal asked Rose, trying to get a rise out of the midfielder.

“Fine,” Rose said, blushing slightly. “We haven’t hung out much since we went to that golf place”

“You’re too cool for her, Rose” Mal chided, making a wistful tsk tsk motion with her head.

“That’s not the reason!” Rose insisted, giggling. “She’s more introverted than I am.”

“Suuure.” Mal said, mostly joking. “You gonna hang out more this camp?”

“I don’t know, she hasn’t said anything. We had fun at golf but I don’t want to be pushy.” Rose briefly wondered if she should be talking this loud, but she was at the front of the bus and she had Ashlyn and Ali in one of their louder bus rides riding behind them. Their conversation was pretty private.

“Well, you were pushy to invite her to golf, right?” Mal asked

“I mean, yeah, but then we actually needed something.” Rose said, unused to needing to push an Alpha to spend time with her, but acknowledging to herself that Tierna was more of a strange case.

“Just do something fun after recovery tomorrow.” Mal said. “Like Mario Kart. Wasn’t she really good at Mario Kart”

“I guess so.”

“Get Kelley to let you borrow the Wii. I’m sure she’d be fine with it.”

Rose was still apprehensive, but she was looking forward to the idea of finishing a recovery day with Tierna. “Alright, I’ll text Kelley”

  
  
  


\--

  
  


Tierna was lounging in her room, reading her book as she wrapped up recovery day, when she heard a knock on the door.

“Come in Andi!”

“It’s me!” Tierna’s heart fluttered as she heard Rose’s voice. She wondered what the Omega was doing there but was happy to hear her.

“You didn’t steal Andi’s key this time?” Tierna asked, grinning as she came to the door.

“Nope” said Rose, as Tierna opened the door, revealing her new favorite Omega waiting in the doorway with what appeared to be a large basket loaded onto her arms.

“Come in,” Tierna said, “Need help with the basket?”

“I’ve got it,” Rose said, walking into the room. She went over to where the T.V. was mounted at the wall, dumping the basket down on the bureau under it, before sighing and adjusting her shirt.

“What’s the basket for?” Tierna asked, smiling up at the Omega. 

“I asked Kelley if I could borrow the Wii.” Rose said sheepishly. “I figured we could play Mario Kart for a date.”

“Mario Kart for a date?” Tierna asked, raising her eyebrows playfully.

“It’s a camp date, we already had our off day, what, you want me to offer to take an Alpha out to dinner on recovery day?”

Tierna smiled down at the Omega she had 6 inches on. “No, It’s an excellent camp date” It was. Tierna hadn’t made a huge investment in their friend dating scheme this camp, not wanting to bring Rose any closer to her but also refusing to push her away. Her gut was still resisting the idea of letting Rose into her life, but when the temptation came knocking, she happily refused to resist it.

“Cool.” Rose said, taking her eyes off of Tierna’s, still a little self conscious being around an Alpha she cared so much about. “Do you know how to set up a Wii?”

“That would have put a wrench in the plan if I didn’t.” Tierna said, her smile turning into a grin. 

“I kind of figured you did, after you totally crushed us in March”

“Fair enough,” Tierna said, taking out the cables and the console itself. “Haven’t done this in a while. Plus it’s a new TV. Should be a fun puzzle” Tierna said.

“Want me to give you a hand?” Rose asked

“Just help me untangle some of these cables.” Tierna said, unraveling the wii and starting to figure out the interface with the T.V.

“OK. Just don’t make me figure out where to plug stuff in,” Rose said, chuckling. 

“No, don’t worry, I can probably figure it out,” Tierna said, finally finding the AV ports on the back of T.V. “Hand me those colored wires?”

“Here you go” Rose said, handing her the Red, White and Yellow cords that linked the Wii to the T.V. “You used to do this a lot as a kid?”

“I mean, I didn’t have to set up and break down a lot, but I used to have a Wii, yeah,” Tierna said, plugging in the wires. “Was a big part of my childhood.”

“What moved you away from it?” Rose said, leaving the question open ended. Tierna wasn’t one to talk a lot about her past at team bondings. It never felt out of the ordinary, she just never told some of the stories that other people told. Kelley and Sonnett both had their “growing up in Georgia” stories that they liked to share with each other, Alex talked a lot about Diamond Bar, and Rose talked a lot about how her youth coaches meant a lot to her herself. Tierna didn’t have a lot of those stories. Rose took the opportunity to try and learn a few.

“Soccer, mostly. I’m not the type of person who gets into anything to be halfway decent at it. Once I was in high school, it became pretty clear that I was good enough at soccer to go anywhere with it. At that point, it became a huge sink for a lot of my free time. It was constantly ‘how much better can I get today’ every day. Didn’t leave a lot of time for video games. I started learning to decompress by reading, instead of playing Mario Kart. I suppose it could have been the opposite, but that’s just how it worked for me.”

“It’s probably why you’re so smart.” Rose said with a chuckle.

“Don’t sell yourself short Rose,” Tierna said, in a way that let Rose know Tierna thought a lot of the midfielder’s brain as well.

“Anyway, you want to play a couple of rounds?”

“Let’s do it,” Rose said, grinning.

\--

Tierna Davidson was much better than Rose Lavelle at Mario Kart.

Rose wasn’t bad  _ per se  _ but Rose was much closer to entry level than Tierna was, and Tierna had to turn off the competitive part of her brain through most of the session. She put the AI on an easier difficulty, and started showing Rose some of the pointers, encouraging her, turning their session into more of a Mario Kart coaching session rather than a competitive event. Alpha gave Omega pointers on what kart/character combination to use, encouraged Rose to drift herself rather than let the game do it for her, and occasionally told her when to use her items. 

After two cups, Tierna was ready to let Rose call it quits, but Rose was improving enough and getting enough into it that she wanted to play a third. Rose managed to beat all the AI on 100 cc every single race on the third cup, a feat she was very impressed by.

“Wow, I’m getting pretty good at this!” Rose said, as Tierna turned off the Wii. They decided to stop playing for a while after the third cup. The two of them sat on the bed, both in short athletic shorts and a t-shirt

“Yeah you are,” Tierna said, smiling. 

“I bet if we played more I could get good enough to beat you.”

“Not more often than you beat me on the dribble.”

That earned a shove from Lavelle, the two of them falling into a fit of laughter. In training, Rose made Tierna look terrible everytime she got by her, but that was only about 35% of the time. Their rivalry wasn’t something they had historically payed a ton of attention to, but during this camp they had started going at each other with an extra intention; they always trained as if it mattered, but there was that slight uptick in technical intensity when you knew it actually did.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, enjoying each other’s company, when Rose’s brain turned to something a little more forlorn.

“Thanks again for not mentioning what happened on Wednesday to Andi.”

Tierna really didn’t think much of it. “She didn’t ask. I mean, it’s a story, I guess, but she doesn’t have a ton to gain from actually knowing the information.”

“Yeah, but I feel like she’d have glued herself to me for the foreseeable future and now she won’t, and I feel kind of bad for you taking some of the responsibility for that.”

“I don’t know, I sort of kind of feel like I’m saving her from herself.”

“What do you mean” Rose looked at Tierna quizzically, not thinking Andi disrespected the older Stanford Alpha, but also thinking the comment came out of left field.

Tierna realized she’d have to explain her thought process. “Alright Rose, do you want to get good at video games?” 

Rose was till confused. “What?”

“I’m gonna explain what I mean, and teach you something cool at the same time” 

Rose was mildly confused still but relished the chance to pick Tierna’s brain about something. “Sure!”

“So, Mario Kart is a cool video game but a genre a much prefer is actually strategy games. I don’t play a ton of them but I’ve actually done a lot of reading on how they’re played. It’s one of the only things I watch on youtube honestly.”

Rose raised her eyebrows “Strategy games?” 

“Yeah. They’re a really fun way to expand a certain part of your brain. I feel like you’d be really good at them if you ever wanted to expand beyond Candy Crush”

Rose pouted demonstratively “I wish people would shut up about my love of Candy crush”

Tierna smiled. “I for one love your love of Candi crush. It’s definitely a great game when you just want to kill some time, but it’s definitely not as complex as some other games that people love to analyze, like poker, or chess. But it’s certainly good for an entry level approach, or when I’m falling asleep, for example”

Rose nodded, following along.

“But one aspect of strategy games, and life planning in general, is that you have to plan for an event to happen, and you have to weigh that planning and it’s robustness against the probability that it will actually happen. For example, you know how in game walkthroughs, Vlatko often throws in like 1 extra sentence every few minutes for what happens ‘If they come out in a three back?’”

“Yeah” All of a sudden with an example Rose could put her finger on, she was becoming very interested in the story. “I never pay much attention, but maybe I should?”

“I’m sure Vlatko almost never expects some international team playing against the friggin’ United States to play a three back. He just doesn’t want to leave us dead in the water in case we do, the idea being if we do face a three back, we’ll remember the adjustments Vlatko has us make during a walkthrough and we’ll have some semblance of what we’re doing, and he’ll yell at us from the sidelines about the rest. He’s planning for an unlikely event, but he’s not devoting all that much time to it.”

“So you’re saying that Alphas devote too much time to an unlikely event?” Rose asked.

“Basically.” Tierna said.

“YEAH!” Rose whooped, giving Tierna a high five. “I’m a gamer now”

Tierna couldn’t help but smile at the young Omega. “Yeah, I guess you are”

“Anyway, Andi and Lindsey know in their minds that it’s highly unlikely that anything bad would have happened to you if I let you go alone to the bathroom.” Tierna continued “However, it’s impossible in their minds for anything bad to happen to you if they are there. That instinct to always watch you comes out of the fact that they know nothing bad will happen if they’re with you.”

“But I wish they weren’t so overbearing sometimes,” Rose says, pouting. Tierna feels a twinge of sadness permeate the air, noting it as an indicator for how sad the Omega actually was. 

“Therein lies the rub.” Tierna said sympathetically, knowing that in the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t a huge deal, but realizing that Omegas trying to get their Alphas to be less protective was pretty much an ongoing process. 

“It was kinda hot seeing you take on an Alpha twice your size. Would have been cool if it weren’t so terrifying” 

“Heh” Tierna laughs, “Picked up some of the moves in college. As the legend goes, way back when, THE Christen Press was terrified that some of the Alphas on the team would get laid out if they ever got into it with a male Alpha.” Tierna explained. “The Alphas, of course, wanted none of it. So Christen started randomly checking every Alpha on the team into walls, demonstrating that she could be good in a fight not just because of her size.”

“Christen Press. Tackled other alphas. randomly?” Rose interrupted, incredulous.

“I don’t know, she was in college at some point, maybe they’re all hotheads.” Tierna said with a wry smile. “I think the point was that female alphas are at a disadvantage physically, and Christen, with her protectiveness, knew that college alphas would ignore that sometimes. She wanted them to be able to handle themselves in case anything happened that, well, happened to us. Hence, fight club.”

“Fight club?” Rose raised her eyebrows.

“That’s our name for it. All the Stanford alphas learned some basic hand to hand combat, just in case. We get the whole “self-defense” shtick and then learn what to do in situations like bar fights because” Tierna laughs “Can you imagine how painfully bad it would both look and be if some US women's national team alpha didn’t know what they were doing in a bar fight?”

“Yeah,” Rose says, amused. The two of them sit on the bed, giggling at each other. 

“I have a dumb question” Rose said after a moment, staring down towards the T.V.

“What?” Tierna said gently, ducking her head to try and make eye contact with Rose. 

“So Sonnett, Sam, and Mal know about our relationship. Or whatever we’re doing” Rose added quickly, not wanting Tierna to think that she was pushing things.

“Makes sense.” Tierna said. “They’re your friends, I kind of figured they’d pick up on something at some point.”

“Yeah, so Emily said something at dinner on Wednesday,” Rose said, tucking her hair behind her ear the way she always did when she was self conscious. “Is the reason you don’t want to date me the fact that I start over you?” 

Rose was unsure of what Tierna’s response would be, knowing it was untrue but also worried that Tierna would take some degree of offense. She was surprised, though, when she heard T start to laugh.

It wasn’t a long laugh, but Rose legitimately saw a rare spell of mirth on Tierna’s face, which caused her to crack up as well.

“Oh Rose,” Tierna said, in what Rose quickly figured out was sarcasm. “I love you dearly, but unfortunately it’s un-Alpha to date someone who’s doing marginally better at life than you, therefore we can’t have this thing we both want.”

“I don’t know, I thought you might be feeling emasculated!” Rose said, laughing along with Tierna.

“No,” Tierna said, her laugh giving way to a more serious vibe once again. “That’s not the reason, Rose”

“I was pretty sure it wasn’t,” Rose said, matching the vibe, “I just wanted to check”

“I’d be a pretty shitty alpha if that were the reason,” Tierna said.

“I know you’re a good person, T” Rose said, wanting to at least rub T’s arm but feeling that that would violate the “girlfriend” boundaries again. She had learned more about the young Alpha in the past two hours than she had for all the World Cup. She didn’t want to give the Alpha an excuse to push her away.

“Mmm” Tierna said. Rose couldn’t tell whether that was an affirmative or a negative sound, and, like normal, Tierna’s scent couldn’t exactly confirm or deny, either. 

The two of them sat together for a few more moments, Rose unsure how to continue but happy to just sit there with the mysterious Alpha she was growing closer to. 

After a while though, Rose noted the time. “Well, I should probably get to bed.”

This time Tierna grunted affirmative, helping Rose get the Wii back into the basket so she could take it to Kelley’s room. 

“I had a really nice time Rose” This time Rose could tell the defender was serious.

“Yeah, that was really fun! We should do it again!” 

“We should Rose, we should.”

Tierna made a quick calculation in her head, before asking Rose “Want a hug?”

“Yeah!” Rose said, putting the basket down and reaching up over the alphas shoulders for an embrace.

Rose was pleasantly surprised when Tierna’s hug offer didn’t turn out to be a bro hug and ended up in a warm, 10 second embrace. Rose was pulled tight into the Omega, and if Rose didn’t know any better, she would have thought Tierna was clinging to her.

“That was really nice Rose,” Tierna said as she broke the embrace, and Rose could feel Tierna’s walls go up again.

Tierna stared forlornly as Rose shut the door. _I don't deserve her_ she thought, before pulling out her phone to a text from Andi saying that she'd be hanging out with Mal, before preparing for bed herself.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, as always, for all of your feedback. It's great motivation, and all of the pairings you want to see provide great inspiration for scenes, even if I can't always make them happen instantly!


	12. Giddiness Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one with a "celebration"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Friends.
> 
> I Am Back!
> 
> I apologize for being a while; two days after the last chapter was posted, I had a surgery, and it took me a while to get in the habit of writing again, and now that fall is here, it is harder to find the time to write in the face of responsibilities, but this story does get me in my feels, and I'm really happy I've started writing it again.
> 
> Surgery went off without a hitch; first week of recovery is always brutal, but I've been just fine for a good while now.
> 
> Bit of a chunkier chapter today, hope y'all enjoy.
> 
> A smattering of housekeeping things:  
> 1\. I reorganized the relationship tags, to better fit the people who I assume will get the majority of the airtime in the aggregate story, just so future readers have a better indication of what they're getting into.  
> 2\. I added an emotional hurt/comfort tag, for two reasons. a. You could argue it already happened with T and Rose, and b. there's gonna be more of it, and it's gonna get, IMO, more intense: Houston plays H-town, we're going to Angst-Town.  
> 3\. In terms of future updates, I would like them to be every five days, but what with those aforementioned responsibilities, it's gonna be harder for me to do that than it was in the brief period over the summer. I'm gonna try to keep them at least every seven days, but depending on when my deadlines are, they may have to get pushed back one or two days depending.
> 
> Next Chapter could be anywhere from Wednesday to Saturday. I'd bet on Thursday.
> 
> Disclaimer: There are no STDs in this Omegaverse. This will make some degree of sense shortly
> 
> With that, enjoy the chapter!

Tierna Davidson couldn’t remember the last time she felt this giddy.

Off the top of her head, winning the World Cup was a good candidate. Crowning achievement, yadda yadda yadda. But she hadn’t felt like she had accomplished that achievement. She had rode the bench when it mattered. Not that she was that angry about it, but Becky Sauerbrunn and Abby Dahlkemper were better, more experienced center backs, so when she jumped on the pigpile at the end of the Netherlands game, she didn’t quite feel like she earned it. Her teammates would all scoff at the notion, saying that she had earned the right to be there. And that would be true. But there was a difference between earning the right to be on the World Cup roster and actually winning the World Cup. She felt like she had won the right to share the joy, but she hadn’t won the joy itself.

Today however, she felt like she had accomplished something. Yesterday, in front of an entire crowd of people in California, she had managed to, along with Alyssa, and the combination of Abby and Becky in the other center back role, kept Debinha, Marta, and the rest of the Brazilian attack out of the goal for the clean sheet. All national team games were important, but this was the Brazilians. Even though the team took all of its games seriously, they weren’t robots. They knew the emotional weight of different games, and it felt genuinely  _ good  _ to take down the Brazilian national team. It was one of the more impressive victories in the past year in terms of dominance; a 3-0 demolishing of a good team. And the best part was Tierna was a  _ part of it _ .  _ She  _ had been the one shutting down Marta. She had worked with Abby, then Becky after 60 minutes, to keep their backline in order, and they had successfully shut down the greatest player in history and arguably the best attacker in NWSL. It was unusual to feel this good after individual games, but this game had been that dominant. Tierna was genuinely giddy. 

Tierna was a little sad that the best thing she could think of to do now that she was done with her recovery was to simply go back to her room and read her book. She wanted to  _ do  _ something. Sure her body was tired from recovery day, but it had been a genuinely impressive win from the national team, and everyone was pretty fired up about it. Alex was back after sustaining a calf injury that kept her out of Olympic Qualifying, and she and Kelley had been all over each other on the bus ride home. She had caught Tobin and Christen eyeing each other hungrily at breakfast that morning, and she had caught Sam, who had also gone the full 90, leaving the recovery room smelling hornier than Tierna had ever seen the Omega. Abby was getting some extra treatment after a shot to the calf. Tierna briefly considered whether the mates should even be allowed to be together that night. Whatever; they could handle themselves.

Tierna was still brimming with excited energy, and Andi was out with Mal somewhere, the two friends hanging out after not seeing as much of each other over the past couple of months. That left Tierna alone, with nothing to do except...read her book? Play an iphone game? Tierna briefly considered a personal training session but realized the trainers wouldn’t let her anywhere near a soccer pitch. Perhaps she should play some Mario Kart. She didn’t have a Wii though. She supposed she could knock on Kelley’s door, but even though Hope wasn’t around, she and Alex were still mates. How that particular foursome handled intimacy between the four of them wasn’t particularly common knowledge, especially with different combinations of them in different places at different times in different cities. A good bet they were probably in the middle of something, and that particular something didn’t really warrant an interruption for something as mundane as a favor. Tierna laughed at the thought of the two’s faces upon learning that the reason they interrupted their time together was just to use the Wii. Would not have been a great look for the young defender.

She didn’t really want to play Mario Kart anyway. She wanted an action game, or at least a difficult platformer. Brazil had been one challenge. Bring on the next! Bad AI weren’t gonna cut it.

A buzz of Tierna’s phone provided a welcome distraction.

**Rose:** Hey! Absolutely no pressure. None. But. The option to do something for Bang Day is on the table, should you want it. Great Game!

Tierna looked at the text on her phone and immediately swore to herself. Here it was, something,  _ or someone (damn Tierna, dirty!)  _ to do with all this extra energy post-win. Sure, it wasn’t what she was thinking of, but something to do to celebrate. And someone to celebrate with! Who wanted to celebrate! And wanted to do so with her! In the back of Tierna’s mind, she knew this was a terrible idea. She still knew that she wanted to keep Rose away. Despite spending more time together the past few days, (Rose had even come up to her before the starting XIs came out yesterday with a good luck hug. In the locker room, where none of the other starters were really gonna see, and it was a really nice touch.) Tierna still wanted to keep Rose as just friends. If they were gonna do this, that line was about to get real blurry, real fast. 

Plus, Tierna hadn’t really been intimate, with anyone, since the thing. Tierna didn’t really want to think about the thing, but in the back of her brain, she was well aware that it had been a while since she had been intimate, and that particular calendar event was relevant to how she would handle this. Sure she had gone at it with Rose for a while a month ago, but that had been all biological. There hadn’t really been any emotional connection, at least until the last part of the night, and by the time she had really been ready to process it, she had really just wanted out of there, immediately getting up and heading for the door. 

But, despite all of that, Tierna was looking for an outlet for her brain’s latent energy. She deserved this. She had just gone up against Debinha and won. She deserved a chance to celebrate. She could make it through this one night with the Omega who cared about her.  _ I deserve this, _ She said to herself, picking up her phone.

**Tierna:** Hey! I’m down if you’re down.

**Rose:** Girl I’m always down. Andi gone?

**Tierna:** She and Mal wanted dinner and a movie. We have at least a couple of hours.

**Rose:** Sweet! Be there in 5.

**Tierna:** Great. Keep it simple though, no lingerie. Ready to celebrate though. =) 

**Rose:** This bod needs no introduction. Be there soon <3 

\--

Tierna realized this was only the second time Rose had entered her room without Andi’s room key, but that fact seemed irrelevant as the Omega midfielder stepped into the Stanford Alpha’s hotel room.

“Hello there”

“Hello.” Rose said, already leaning into her sultriness. Seductress Rose was sexy, but uncanny. Both very close and very far from Jokester Rose.

“How are you?” Tierna said, grinning, feigning normal conversation but letting Rose know the ball was in her court. 

“Better, now that I’m with you.” Rose said, coming up to press her hand into Tierna’s chest. She was a little surprised at how easily the flirting came to her. She had been a little nervous on the way over about if it would be awkward, as while she had had a couple of dates recently, none of them had led to sex. It had been a _while_ since she had been intimate with anyone other than Andi __ and now that neither of them were in rut or in heat, there were a lot fewer pheromones to guide them. She guessed Tierna could scent her arousal, but for what she assumed was the usual reason, Tierna herself was still relatively odorless. Body language worked, Rose guessed.

“Why is that?” Tierna asked, her own sly smile continuing to play on her face, all previous reservations forgotten. Tierna could definitely smell Rose’s arousal, allright.

“Maybe because of the hotness I witnessed yesterday, I’m just glad I get to examine it” Rose ran her hand down over Tierna’s arm, feeling the smoothness of her skin and internally swooning at the corded muscle.

“Yeah? Sweaty soccer player? Dirty uniform?” Tierna said, still playing coy, but now a little self conscious. Rose had noticed her performance and was complimenting her on it, and that made her fuzzy inside.

“Nah. I just find the ability to ball out  _ quite _ sexy.” Rose said; her hands, having completed their circuit of Tierna’s arms, made their way down the Alphas chest as she made her way to the hem of the Alpha’s T-shirt. Rose slowly slipped Tierna out of it, the tall Alpha now in just her sports bra and shorts.

“Hmm.” Tierna wasn’t one to be self-conscious; she got gassed up a lot, by teammates, family, and twitter. But something about Rose being impressed by her made her feel unworthy. She was almost in disbelief. 

“And I want to give that sexiness-” Rose was now kissing her way down Tierna’s exposed abdomen. “It’s due.” With that, Rose stood and gave Tierna a light shove onto the bed. Rose immediately went to take her panties and shorts off, ready to climb on top of the Alpha, when she realized something just as she was stepping out of her bottoms.

It was highly unusual for Omega’s to be on top for their first time like this. Sure, Rose had been on top with Andi several times, but only after their relationship was well established. Alphas generally like to be in control the first time, and while Rose didn’t mind being a top, she was unused to calling the shots in the way Tierna was letting her. She wondered if she should let T dictate the tempo of things, all of a sudden wondering if she was doing it wrong, when she looked up to see T, with her pants halfway down, already stimulating her growing erection.

“Rose. Get over here.” Tierna said, with a growing smile.

“You bet.” Rose said.

\--

After helping Tierna out of her shorts, Rose had surprised both herself and Tierna at already being wet enough to take Tierna into her. Rose couldn’t confirm the scent amid the arousal in the room, but she could have sworn she caught a whiff of pride when Tierna had realized that.

“Hmm, I’m so ready for you, T” Rose avoided using the word Alpha, Rose didn’t want the young defender to get the wrong impression. 

“Tell me about it,” Tierna said, suppressing a moan, as felt Rose climb on top of her,

“That good T?” Rose asked, now sliding herself down Tierna’s ample member.

“Fuck yeah, that’s good.” Tierna said, breath catching as she felt Rose’s walls clench around her.

“Thought it was” Confident Rose was a part of Seductress Rose, it seemed, and Tierna was Here For It.

Rose started moving up and down on Tierna’s pole, the two of them both happy to be joined together and enjoying the friction they generated, letting out smaller moans as they built up a rhythm. Rose briefly acknowledged to herself that Tierna seemed fine being on bottom, before Tierna started countering Rose’s bobs by bucking her hips into Rose’s, and Rose’s mind returned to her pleasure.

The two of them continued bucking into each other, in just their sports bras, sprawled out on the bed, moaning increasingly as both approached their climaxes.

“Okay if I knot you?” Tierna said, knowing that it was kind of a stupid question but wanting permission to connect the two of them.

“You wanna?” Rose said, raising her right eyebrow as she kept riding the alpha. 

“Not before you get off” Tierna said with a smirk, rubbing small circles over the Omega’s clit in an attempt to get her to cum.

“Oh it’s gonna be like that,” Rose said, starting to rock her hips at alternate angles, doing her best to stimulate Tierna’s member as much as she could

Tierna and Rose came together, building each other up and doing their best to align their body clocks to one other as they coaxed each other through a joint orgasm.

“Oh  _ dammit _ that’s good,” Rose exclaimed, rocking herself on top of Tierna’s knot as she coaxed herself down from her high,

“Ooh yeah” Tierna sighed, canting her hips lightly into Rose’s, as she didn’t want to move too much, knowing her knot was still wedged up firmly inside the omega.

Tierna in that moment had a very mundane thought. “You are on birth control, right?” She asked, only half serious.

Rose was still attached at the groin with the young defender as she held out her left arm and gestured to a small bulge on her left shoulder. “Got my implant right here.”

“Just checking” Tierna chuckled, not thinking too much of it. Rose would not have handled their March encounter the way she did if she did hadn't been somewhat prepared. Most of the omegas had their birth control wired in with US soccer; just as a way of making sure all their athletes were healthy, as well as using the hormonal regulation to make sure heats and ruts did not occur during major tournaments as much as humanly possible. 

“I guess it would have been a lame end to the evening, me having to rush down to the training office to mainline some plan B.”

“Nah.” Tierna deadpanned, still talking to Rose from right under her, her knot still hard inside the Omega’s pussy “Evening was uneventful, needed something to spice it up.”

“Hey!” Rose said, swatting playfully at the Stanford alum.“Who you calling uneventful”

“Maybe I’m unimpressed by someone who can’t last as long as I can.” Tierna said with a devilish look on her face.

“I came before you did?” Rose asked incredulously, Tierna rewarded for her verbal jibe with her favorite “performative disbelief” look out of Rose’s face.

“Well,” Rose said, leaning down.” I guess I’ll just be proud I have an Alpha...” Rose planted a kiss, on Tierna’s neck, close to where a potential mating mark would go,”who can last...” Rose leaned around and kissed the other side, “as long as I can,” Rose finished, planting a kiss right on Tierna’s lips, finishing their evening where they had started it.

Rose didn’t know it would end so abruptly. 

She noticed Tierna's knot was finally deflated first, before turning her attention back to the alpha and noticing she was staring straight up into the air, eyes somewhat glazed over. Upon further inspection, Rose noticed Tierna’s chest rise and fall at an elevated rate, accompanied by an increase in Tierna’s pheromones, disguised by their previous intimacy. Rose realized she should have smelled it sooner, but between Tierna’s historical odorlessness and her apparent distress, Rose pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

“Tierna?” Rose asked, worried. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah.” Tierna replied shortly. “Could you get off me”

“Of course,” Lavelle replied, quickly testing to check whether the Alpha’s knot had deflated before pulling herself off of the defender.

“You okay?” Rose said, sitting next to Tierna on the bed while Tierna sat up, holding her head in her hands.

“Yeah,” Tierna said quickly. “I think I need you to leave.”

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked. “Was it something I said?” Rose ran her brain through what happened before Tierna started hyperventilating before putting a finger on a potential problem spot. “Oh shit, did I call you Alpha, T i’m really sorry-”

“It’s okay Rose, I just need some space”

“T just let me know what-”

“You’ve served your purpose, Omega!”

Tierna’s voice wasn’t too highly raised, and she still wasn’t looking at Rose, but the words still pierced right through Rose’s heart. She looked at Tierna, who still looked away from her, no effort needed to avoid Rose’s gaze. Rose was in shock. It  _ hurt  _ to be talked to like that. It was almost as if Rose was the Alpha’s property, an old thought that was stupid, and frowned upon, and especailly by the NT’s Alphas. Rose would have never thought Tierna would think of her like that. Hell, she  _ still _ didn’t think Tierna would think of her like that. But there it was. Between her own hurt and the evidence that Tierna really didn’t want her there anymore, Rose grabbed her shorts from where they were the bottom of the bed, quickly hoisted them up over her naked waist, and left the room in a hurry.

\--

**Rose:** Hey, T. I still don’t know exactly what happened earlier today. I don’t know what caused whatever the hyperventilation episode was. I guess I don’t even know if it was a hyperventilation episode, or what it was, but I hope you’re doing okay, regardless. I’m really sorry if I caused it. It hurt me a little to see you like that. 

Let me know you need anything to help you recover from the whatever-it-is. I’ve got your back. I’d like to help if I can.

I may come off as an asshole for saying this now, but fuck it, it’s important to me, and I hope it’s important to you: You’re important to me. I know this is still technically “frienddating”, and I know I’ve been pushing that boundary basically since day 1, and I know it still hasn’t been that long, but whatever we have, whatever we can have, I want it. If that’s just friends, and teammates, that’s okay with me. I’m sorry if me pushing the boundaries is what triggered whatever happened just now to happen.

Here’s the asshole part. T, I really don’t know why you felt you needed to say those words to me at the end, but I think I know exactly what you were trying to do with them. You needed me to leave the room in that moment, and you knew that that’s exactly what those words were going to accomplish. And, and pardon me for possibly overstepping, you didn’t care exactly what you were sacrificing to accomplish that goal. I know, almost instinctively, that you don’t want to hurt me, ever. But in that moment, my feelings became unimportant in the face of yours. You didn’t even believe the words you were saying, but you said them anyway, because you precisely calculated exactly how to get me out of the room as efficiently as possible. I know that’s all it was. But that’s all it needed to be, because as much as it wasn’t about my hurt, it really fucking hurt T, to hear you say that. It really fucking hurt.

T I don’t believe you’re the person who said those words. I know you don’t want to be the person who said those words. But I would very much like it if, together, we could make it so you never felt like you had to say those words to me again. Because I like you, a lot. And I can take it, once, twice, maybe even three times, I don’t know. But I don’t want to, I don’t think you want me to, and I don’t want to lose you if it happens one time too many.

Anyway, I don’t really need an apology, I guess I could use an explanation, but I don’t need one of those either. I’m sorry for the long winded text, but I really did want to say my piece, because that really did hurt, T. It really did. Let me know if I’m the asshole. I still like you a lot, and, more importantly than this conversation, I hope you’re ok. 

I’d take a 100 more sentences like the one you just gave me if it meant you would be ok.

Rose gave her text one last read, assuring herself that correcting anything post send would take away from what she was trying to say rather than clarifying it. It had already taken her the last 45 minutes to write the damn thing, and another 15 to read it over to ensure there weren’t any glaring mishaps. The first section had taken the most touching up; it had been when she was the most mad. Once she got to actually thinking through the events of the hour, this camp, and at the end of SheBelieves, she convinced herself that Tierna probably  _ was  _ just lashing out to get her out of there, and didn’t really mean it. That certainly didn’t excuse what Tierna said, but Rose really wanted to fight for whatever they had, and the part of Rose’s mind that wasn’t hurt could appreciate the rationality of what Tierna did. But the stone cold  _ calculus  _ of it, the way she had held Rose’s emotions out of the equation, that had hurt, more than the words themselves in some ways. She realized that on some level a lot of problematic relationships got started when partners let partners get away with doing shit like that. Rose didn’t believe Tierna would continue to do that, but she wanted to nip that in the bud if she could. If she told Andi or Lindsey that Tierna had said that to her, both Alphas would deck the young defender, at first opportunity, on principle. She would want neither to actually do that, but in order to prevent that from happening, Rose knew the older Alphas would want to know that Tierna would never pull a stunt like that again. Rose was trying to ensure she wouldn’t.

Rose sat in the dining hall. It was 8:30 pm, and the ballroom they were using was empty except for a couple of staff members coming in and out to maintain the buffet setup after dinner. She sighed, tilting her head back, and let her head start to drift off to sleep. It had been a long couple of days, and the sleeping part of the recovery day was more important than the entire rest of it combined. 

Her pre bedtime nap routine was interrupted by her phone’s buzzing.

**Tierna:** I’m fine now Rose. I’m sorry.

**Tierna:** You’re not the asshole Rose. You never are.

**Tierna:** (Link: “Dirty Computer” by Janelle Monáe- Youtube)

Rose looked down at her phone, seeing Tierna’s response. Like a lot of Tierna things, this was pretty short and to the point. Rose noticed the different parts that covered the different aspects of Rose’s text; “I’m fine” for the “Are you ok” part. “I’m sorry” for the “I don’t need an apology” part. “You’re not the asshole” for the part where Rose was unsure if she was stepping over a line.

That left Rose’s request for an explanation. She looked at the song, confused as to why Tierna chose to send it along as well. Maybe this was a scam? Almost impossible. An error? Unlikely; Tierna was too intentional in the things she did. Whatever it was, Rose decided to take a listen to the song. She had her earbuds for in case this was a night when she needed to cry the night away, so she pulled them out of her pocket and put them into her ears, checking the bluetooth ping before leaning back and letting the song echo through her head.

Rose didn’t have a lot of experience evaluating music, but she quickly found herself quietly moving to the rhythm of the song. The song was very pleasing sonically, the soundscape was really relaxing to vibe to, and Rose let a bit of tension out of her shoulder muscles she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She didn’t listen much to the lyrics, letting them wash over her as she rocked out to the instrumentals instead. The song was over quickly, and the last thing Rose heard was the quote “I love you in this Space and Time.” Rose then quickly realized that she hadn’t been paying attention to the lyrics at all. Were they a message of some kind? Was this Tierna’s way of letting Rose know what was bothering her? Acknowledging that that would be the weirdest way to communicate, but writing it off as a quirk of her personality, Rose went to give the song another listen when she was interrupted by a loud plop beside her.

“Hey Rose!” Emily Sonnett had arrived in the ballroom, and she had seated herself right by the younger Omega.

“Hey Sonnett,” Rose said tiredly, looking over to her Omega defender friend who had evidently entered the room while Rose was still listening to music. “Did you come looking for me?”

“Actually, no, but one of the staff came out of the dining hall as I was walking through the lobby, so I poked my head in to see what was going on. And look who I found!”

“The one and only,” Rose sighed, adjusting her positioning to tilt her head against her left hand, peering at Sonnett from across the room.

“What’s up Rose?” Sonnett expected the midfielder to be tired after playing a good 60 minutes yesterday, but this wasn’t content tired Rose, this was a sad tired Rose. Something was bothering her.

Rose sighed, folding her arms over the table. “I don’t know, I’m sort of having an “Am I the Asshole” moment.”

“You gonna send team gossip to an advice column?”

Rose laughed lightly. “No, to a Reddit thread.” She appreciated Sonnett’s ability to always look for a joke. The humor had her feeling better about herself.

Sonnett chuckled along with Rose, glad the midfielder felt good enough to shoot the shit, before getting back to the point. “Is it about Tierna?

Rose adjusted her position again, nervously fidgeting around Sonnett’s line of questioning. “Yeah”

Sonnett really didn’t know how to continue. She risked sniffing the air, and while she could make out Tierna’s underlying scent pattern, she wasn’t sure if she wasn’t just smelling that from their game together. So she instead tried, “What’s wrong?”

Rose kept her fidgeting going, this time running her right hand through her hair. “It’s complicated.” Is all she said.

“You’re okay though, right?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely, there’s just,” Rose sighs. “I don’t really want to talk about it, Son. I’m sorry.”

Sonnett couldn’t mask her concern for her friend but just said, “Ok. As long as you’re comfortable.”

“I can handle myself sonnett,” Rose said with a wry smile. 

“I know you can, I’m just here to let you know you don’t have to.” 

The two of them sat together, Emily content to just quietly support her friend after having spent the last few hours with Lindsey, and Rose just sitting in her feelings, when both of their phones went off simultaneously. Sonnett lazily turned her phone from where it sat one the table, and did an actual double take when she read the text.

**(The Four Omegas of the Apocalypse)**

**Mal:** My Room. Now.

Rose noticed Emily’s double take, and hurriedly looked at her own phone, reading the same group text she was.

“This isn’t some kinky bed text meant for you and Andi, is it?” Sonnett asked, noticing the joke in there but dead serious.

“Doesn’t read like it” Rose replied.

“Let’s go find out.” Sonnett said.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to do the in-chapter lyric dump for the "Dirty Computer" appearance, but If you want to try and get into Tierna's head a little bit, a fun thing you can do is imagine her singing it to Rose. Doing it a la "Zoey's Extraordianary playlist" didn't seem appropriate, but I do sort of want to use music to convey the character's emotions. I have a couple more ideas for when that will pop up throughout the story; let me know if it comes off okay. Also, the song itself is one on my personal feelz playlist, definitely check it out if you haven't already. Dirty Computer, by Janelle Monáe.

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback you have is always appreciated. =)


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